What Does Revelation 16:21 Mean?
And a great hail comes down out of heaven upon the people, each stone weighing about a talent, and the people speak harm against God because of the blow of the hail, for its blow is exceedingly great.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.THE KEY
The hail’s crushing weight meets a human voice that turns against God.
THE MEANING
This verse places the reader in a scene of overwhelming force: hail falls with the weight of a talent, and its impact is called a blow. Under that pressure, people blaspheme God; the verse holds the violence and the hostile response together without softening either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Severe suffering does not inevitably draw a person toward reverence; here, the immense blow is answered with blasphemy.
THE ROOT
πληγή
plēgē
GROWS FROM
πληγ-
plēg-
strike; blow
The Greek word πληγή (plēgē, blow or wound) can also mean a plague or affliction. Here, “plague” carries the force of a strike: the hail lands as an impact, and the same word names its wound.
ALSO GROWS
plēssō: to strike or smite
πλήσσω
This related verb makes the force inside πληγή (plēgē, blow or wound) visible: the plague is an impact that strikes.
plēgē: a blow, wound, or affliction
πληγή
This is the word used for the hail’s plague and its immense impact in the verse.
βλασφημέω
blasphēmeō
GROWS FROM
βλασφημ-
blasphēm-
speak abusively; slander
“speak harm against” in this verse is blasphēmeō. The verb names injurious speech directed at God. The verse sets that speech beside the physical blow: the hail strikes people, and their answer is to speak against God.
ALSO GROWS
blasphēmia: slander or blasphemy
βλασφημία
This noun shares the verb’s stem and makes the speech itself a named act.
blasphēmos: slanderous or abusive
βλάσφημος
This related form describes speech that attacks or injures by its words.
THE PATTERN
Overwhelming affliction exposes a person’s response toward God, but does not dictate a single response.
And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he added yet more to missing the mark, and made his heart heavy, he and his servants.But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not receive harm? In all this Job did not miss the mark with his lips.One of the workers of evil who hung there reviled him, saying, If you are the Anointed One, deliver yourself and us.THE THREAD
One of the workers of evil who hung there reviled him, saying, If you are the Anointed One, deliver yourself and us.The Greek verb behind “railed” is βλασφημέω (blasphēmeō, speak abusively), the same verb rendered “blasphemed” in Revelation. The two scenes place this injurious speech beside overwhelming pain: one under the weight of hail, the other at a cross.
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