Second Vial (Blood On the Sea

p. 142

SECOND VIAL.

(Blood On the Sea.)

Rev. 16:3.

"And the 'Second Angel' poured out his Vial upon the sea: and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea."

We saw that at the sounding of the "Second Trumpet," that the third part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. Rev. 8:8-9. Here the whole of the sea is affected. This may mean only the Sea of Galilee, or the Mediterranean Sea, and not the oceans of the earth. It does not follow that this blood is that of men. It may be only of the living creatures that are in the sea. The Revised Version translates (in the margin) the word "soul" as the "soul of life," and we know that the word "soul" implies "self conscious life," and this is common to all animal life. The blood is certainly not the blood of sailors and marines caused by some great naval battle. The inference is that the creatures in the sea died, not because of the loss of their own blood, but because the waters of the sea became "AS the blood of a dead man"--that is, corrupt.