Revelation 16:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is not surprising that divine power, to expose the weakness of the Antichrist and the frivolity of those deceived, will through the prophets Enoch and Elijah turn the sea as it were into the blood of a slain man.

It will destroy every living thing in it, just as God once did through Moses in Egypt (Ex 7:19). This exposed Pharaoh’s stubbornness and revealed His own might.

The faithful would be strengthened, and the unbelieving would be terrified, seeing creation rise against them because of their veneration of the apostate.

Another supposition is also plausible. This indicates the defeats in wars at his coming, when Gog and Magog will war against one another throughout the whole world.

The blood in the sea indicates those killed in naval battles. The blood in the rivers and waters naturally bears witness to those killed in battles on land, having camped on the banks of the waters.

He says that the water was turned into blood. It is easy to turn away from spiritual things and think according to the flesh. We know without any doubt that this was expressed in the first of the plagues suffered by the Egyptians according to Scripture (cf. Ex 7:17-21).

He says that fresh waters were turned into blood, whether the Egyptian rivers or rainwaters, as some translations say: “and their rainwaters became blood.”

Yet here we face the question of why, in this place, it is said that the second bowl was poured into the sea, that is, into bitter and salty waters.

Those who not only bore the seal of the antichrist, but also attacked the faithful servants of Christ with waves of terrible persecutions, will be punished with a spiritual penalty called blood.

Those who boasted that they were alive will prove to be servants of the author of death.

God once did something similar in Egypt for the admonition of Pharaoh. This Egyptian plague may be repeated again at the end of the world, to encourage those firm in faith and to terrify the wavering and the apostates.