The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land. For the third time the land was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Revelation 8:7
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail
In November 2015 a freak hailstorm in Iraq caused a river of hailstones running through the desert, which swelled the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/iraqi-ice-flood-footage-shows-6805027
The land and trees were burned up for the third time
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land. And for the third time the land was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Revelation 8:7
Most Bible translators translate the second line in the verse as:
‘A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up’.
However, there is a problem with this translation. The word ‘a’ does not appear in the original Greek text. The Bible translators have mistranslated the definite article.
Mistranslation of the definite article
If you read the verse in the original Greek it does not actually say ‘a third of the earth’. In the original Greek it says ‘the third of the earth.’ The Greek word τὸ which is translated as ‘a’ by many Bible translations is actually the definite article ‘the’:
Strong’s Concordance
ho, hé, to: the
Original Word: ὁ, ἡ, τό
https://biblehub.com/greek/3588.htm
Part of Speech: Definite Article
Transliteration: ho, hé, to
Phonetic Spelling: (ho)
Definition: the
Usage: the, the definite article.
The Bible translators have quite rightly realized that it sounds strange for the verse to read:
‘And the third of the earth was burned up and the third of the trees were burned up…’
So, they decided to change the definite article ‘the’ to ‘a’ to try and make their translation of the verse work. I decided to accept that the apostle John meant ‘the’ when he put this word into the verse and to see if the verse could be translated in a different manner from the way in which Bible translators have traditionally translated it.
The meaning of τρίτον
The Greek word τρίτον which has been translated as ‘third’ can also mean the ‘third time’ (Matthew 26:44; Mark 14:41; Luke 23:22; John 21:14; John 21:17; 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1). Therefore, it is possible that the verse is saying that for the third time the earth is burnt up and for the third time the trees are burnt up.
However, this doesn’t make much sense because there are no instances in history where the entire earth was burnt up on two previous occasions.
However, things begin to make sense when you realize that the Greek word γῆς which has been translated as ‘the earth’ can also be translated as ‘the land’ (Mat 14:24; Mark 4:1; Mark 6:47; Luke 5:3; Luke 21:23; John 6:21; John 21:8; Acts 7:4; Heb 8:9; Heb 11:29; Jude 1:5; Rev 10:5; Rev 10:8).
It can also be seen to be a region.
Strong’s Concordance
gé: the earth, land
Original Word: γῆ, γῆς, ἡ
https://biblehub.com/greek/1093.htm
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: gé
Phonetic Spelling: (ghay)
Definition: the earth, land
Usage: the earth, soil, land, region, country, inhabitants of a region.
If one translates the verse putting in the ‘third time’ and ‘the land’ or ‘the region’ then the verse reads:
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
Military strikes on Iraq
Where did Revelation 8:7 take place? Where is this land or region? I believe that the hail in November 2015 directs us to the location onto which the fire mixed with blood was hurled. Therefore, we can know that the land, or region, that we have to look at to see if fire mixed with blood was hurled down onto it, is the land of Iraq.
The meaning of fire mixed with blood
Probably, the best explanation of what fire mixed with blood being hurled down on the land symbolizes in our modern understanding, is that it symbolizes military airstrikes. In November 2015, when the hail fell, Iraq was in a state of war. Iraq was fighting a war against ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) which started in 2013 and finished in 2017. Many airstrikes occurred in Iraq during this war. If it is the case that airstrikes are being referred to in Revelation 8:7, then these airstrikes may have occurred during the Third Battle of Fallujah.
The Third Battle of Fallujah
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
On the 2 February 2016, approximately two months after the strange hail fell in the Iraqi desert, Iraqi troops laid siege to a city in Iraq called Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_War_in_Iraq_(2016)
On 22 May they started an attack to take back Fallujah from ISIL. This attack is called the Third Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Fallujah
Before and during the Third Battle of Fallujah, the city and the land around the city were attacked from the air a number of times by western coalition forces and the Iraqi military:
List of RAF airstrikes on and around Fallujah in May 2016:
On 27 May, the US-led Coalition conducted airstrikes in and around Fallujah, killing 70 ISIL fighters, including the militants’ top commander in the area, Maher Al-Bilawi:
On 19 June, it was reported that 50 ISIL militants had been killed in coalition air strikes and 15 others had been killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces:
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/battle-for-iraq-s-fallujah-continues
On 29 June, Iraqi jets targeted a convoy of militants and their supporters fleeing from Fallujah’s villages under cover of a dust storm. The Iraqi Air Force claimed that about 426 vehicles carrying up to 2,000 militants were hit in the airstrikes.[94]
Later that day, the U.S. Air Force conducted airstrikes against retreating ISIL convoys on the outskirts of Fallujah, killing at least 250 militants and destroying 40 vehicles.[95] Overall, 348 militants were killed and more than 200 vehicles were destroyed throughout the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Fallujah
As the fight for Fallujah intensifies, the Iraqi military has revealed it has launched at least 240 air raids since the beginning of its military operations, as a leading aid group raised alarm over the unfolding “human catastrophe” in the city.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/operation-fallujah-240-airstrikes-nine-days
These airstrikes were the third time that military airstrikes were used against Fallujah during a battle. There had previously been two other battles at Fallujah.
The First and Second Battles of Fallujah
The First and Second Battles of Fallujah didn’t actually take place in the same war as the Third Battle of Fallujah. They took place during the previous war, the Iraq War (2003 – 2011).
First Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah
Second Battle of Fallujah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Battle-of-Fallujah
https://mca-marines.org/bsp/bsp-middleeast/second-fallujah/
During both the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, the city and the land around it were also hit by airstrikes.
Airstrikes during the First Battle of Fallujah:
Air bombardments rained on insurgent positions throughout the city,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Fallujah
Airstrikes during the Second Battle of Fallujah:
The United States Air Force provided close air support for the ground offensive, employing F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, B-52 Stratofortresses, and AC-130 gunships to carry out close-quarter precision airstrikes against enemy strongholds within the city. The Air Force also employed MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance and precision strikes, and the U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft for intelligence collection, surveillance and reconnaissance before, during, and after the battle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
Therefore, during all three Battles of Fallujah, ‘fire mixed with blood’ was cast onto this region in Iraq.
All the green grass was burned up
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the land (or region). And for the third time the land (or region) was burned up, and for the third time the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. (Bold mine)
Revelation 8:7
Although Iraq is a very dry country, Fallujah had green grass:
In the following article, written by someone who had visited Fallujah prior to the Battles of Fallujah, the author called Fallujah ‘green’:
https://revealnews.org/article/fallujah-my-lost-hometown/
The Significance of Fallujah
At the time that John was writing the Book of Revelation, Fallujah was occupied by Jewish people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah
So, Fallujah must have had significance to John because it was a Jewish settlement. Also, it is one of the locations where the Babylonian Talmud was created https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumbedita .
But, more importantly Fallujah has significance for God, as it is a city located in the area where the Garden of Eden was located. I will discuss this further in the next section of this article.
I believe that God is particularly angry about the devastation caused to the city of Fallujah by the wars in Iraq. Babies at the time of the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, who survived to become children, had to flee from Fallujah in 2016 to escape the Third Battle of Fallujah.
This article https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/ describes the situation of one of these children:
To watch young amputee Mustafa Ahmed swing from his crutches into a dirty tent in the middle of the desert—no clean water or food, no mattress to sleep on—is to see the failure of U.S. policy in Iraq.
According to a grim report on PBS Newshour by foreign correspondent Jane Arraf, Ahmed lost a kidney and his leg when he was a baby during an American airstrike in Fallujah in 2004. (She doesn’t say whether it was during the first Battle of Fallujah or the second.) Now a handsome yet serious-faced child of 12 or 13, he has fled his city on crutches for eight miles before becoming trapped in one of the desperate camps outside.
He told Arraf he once had a prosthetic leg, fitted for him in Oregon—likely as a form of restitution for being collateral damage. But he has since outgrown it. Now he doesn’t even have catheter tubes. He couldn’t even get one of the free mattresses being distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the few aid groups on the ground there today.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/
Some more articles about this devastation caused to Fallujah in 2004 and 2016:
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fallujah-tries-to-rebuild-before-residents-return/
https://revcom.us/es//////////a/023/fallujah-hidden-massacre.htm
The Second Battle of Fallujah was the worst battle for Fallujah environmentally. This was because the Americans bombed Fallujah with things that have contaminated the environment to the extent that babies born in Fallujah after the Second Battle of Fallujah have been born with birth defects:
https://libcom.org/news/fallout-us-seige-fallujah-worse-hiroshima%E2%80%99s-19082010
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/25/fallujah-iraq-health-crisis-silence
http://www.newweapons.org/?q=node/104
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Fallujah020710.html
https://hibakusha-worldwide.org/en/locations/fallujah
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/fallujah-iraq-birth-defects/
The fact that Fallujah was exposed to the effects of war for a third time, after having sustained such damage as a result of the Second Battle of Fallujah, is pretty mind-blowing.
It is very possible that Revelation 8:7 may be referring specifically to the area in and around the city of Fallujah. First there is the hail in November 2015, indicating to us that the next events are also going to occur in Iraq. The words the ‘third time’ point to the exact area on which the fire mixed with blood will be hurled by indicating that this event is happening for the third time. The three Battles of Fallujah are historically well known. Wikipedia dedicates an individual article to each of these Battles. The Second Battle of Fallujah was the worst battle that the Americans fought during the Iraq War. Books have been written about it:
So, this event of Fallujah being involved in a third battle is a sign which the world cannot fail to miss. The Third Battle of Fallujah is very possibly the First Trumpet. If so, then this sign has already occurred between November 2015 and June 2016.