What is the meaning of wormwood in Revelation?

laanah, 'wormwood:' used only in a figurative sense for bitterness or poison. Amos 6:12. It is translated WORMWOOD in Deut. 29:18; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15; Jer. 23:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Amos 5:7. It corresponds with ἄψινθος in Rev. 8:11.

laanah, ἄψινθος. This occurs in scripture only in a metaphorical sense. Turning to idolatry is compared to being a root that beareth gall and wormwood. Deut. 29:18. Some turned 'judgement to wormwood,' probably alluding to the unrighteous judges. Amos 5:7. Because of the wickedness of His people, God said He would feed them with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. Jer. 9:15; Jer. 23:15. Jeremiah, in lamenting over the condition of Israel, compared it to being drunk with wormwood. Lam. 3:15, 19. On the sounding of the third trumpet in the Revelation, a star named Wormwood fell from heaven, and the third part of the waters were turned to wormwood, of which many men died: the moral sources of life will become destructive. Rev. 8:10-11. There are several species in Palestine: the Artemisia absinthium and A. chinensis are the wormwood of commerce.

Wormwood. — The bitterness and misery of apostasy. (Jer. 9:15-16; 23:15; Lam. 3:5, 19.)

To this man's many names is added another here: “Wormwood,” speaking of that which is harsh and embittering, for he turns the waters bitter. He corrupts the truth of God by his poisonous doctrine (1 John 2:22). By this many die; not physically, but by apostasy they become dead to any recognition of the living God.

His name was Wormwood. In Deuteronomy 29:19-20, He that hears the curses of the law, and says, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, is likened to a root that beareth gall and wormwood. See also the strange woman, Proverbs 5:4. In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems the bitter results of disobedience, even being scattered among the heathen. See also Jeremiah 23:15. Here, as in Amos 5:7, "Ye who turn judgment to wormwood," seems to mean the corruption of the waters, resulting in the death of those that drank thereof.

The third judgment in the series of the trumpets is of another kind. "The third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a torch, and it fell upon the third of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third of the waters became wormwood; and many of the men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." Now a star, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, though in another connection (Rev. 1:20), is the figure of one who holds a place of subordinate authority — one who may give light to others — subject himself to another, but still ruling. Here it is a degraded ruler, a dignitary fallen from his place of authority. Waters are the symbol of people unformed, fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river that which characterises their course. A certain proportion is tainted by the fall of the star or ruler, which embitters whatever it touches, and many die because of the waters being made bitter. Here the infliction seems not so much of a political kind as the previous judgment; it is rather the poisoning of all that ought to be the means of blessing to man and that concerns his ordinary life.

Rev. 8:10-11. — “And the third angel sounded (his) trumpet: and there fell out of the Heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many of the men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” At the blast of the trumpets the four restraining angels let loose the four winds of the earth, the providential agencies of judgment (Rev. 7:1). The dark cloud of vengeance upon a guilty scene is lifted for a brief space, during which God in sovereign grace works amongst Israel and the Gentiles (Rev. 7). Then under the Trumpets the orderly course of judgment is resumed. The previous blasts announced judgments of the most appalling character on the earth and on the sea: the former the scene of governmental order, and where, too, God had been more or less professedly owned; the latter the sphere where the forces of anarchy and the will of man reigned supreme, which is ever to the denial of spiritual and civil authority. This Trumpet intimates a judgment equal in terrible severity, and in some respects even more awful than the preceding ones. “There fell out of the Heaven a great star.” The Heaven is the source of authority; it is a definitely fixed position; hence the introduction of the article “the Heaven.” All spiritual, civil, and political authority has its source above. “The heavens do rule ” (Dan. 4:26). Under the two preceding trumpets the instruments of judgment were “cast” upon the earth and sea respectively, but from whence we are not informed. Here this apostate dignitary “fell” out of the Heaven. The word “cast” would imply the exercise of irresistible power on the part of the unseen actor, as also the violence of the judgment; whereas “fell,” as also in Revelation 9:1, would rather point to a sudden, unexpected downfall. The “star” as a symbol is one of frequent occurrence in the Apocalypse, and denotes a ruler, or one occupying a place of influence and position in responsibility to God (Rev. 12:1-4; Rev. 6:13, etc.). Supremacy is denoted by the sun; derived and subordinate authority is figured by the moon; while stars point to lesser authorities. This “great star” evidently symbolizes a distinguished ruler responsible as set in the moral firmament to give light in the then dark night of the world’s history, but he is an apostate personage, one under the immediate judgment of God, “burning as a torch;” in this respect like the “great mountain burning with fire.” The epithet “great” is attached to the mountain, and also to the star; only in the former a corporate power or system is referred to, whereas in the latter an exalted individual is meant. Who this degraded and apostate person is we are not informed. Some regard the great fallen star as denoting the personal Antichrist. But that does not amount to more than conjecture. The Antichrist plays an important part in the coming crisis, as we shall see in subsequent studies.

Rev. 8:11. — “The name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many of the men died, because they were made bitter.” The name “Wormwood” is significant of character. Many of the older expositors regard the personage here as Satan, but, as has already been remarked, we have no means to identify the person by name. The geographical area affected is the “third part.” The fountains, the sources of national life, are poisoned. All under the withering influences of this fallen being partake of his character, “Wormwood.” Evidently there is a reference to that interesting incident in Israel’s history detailed in Exodus 15:22-25. There the bitter waters were made sweet; here the sweet waters are made bitter. National life and character are corrupted. A judicial dealing of an intensely solemn character overtakes a third part of the nations; their springs of action, their motives, principles, and moral life are poisoned, with the result that “many” die. It is not physical but moral death that is in question, truly more awful than the former. “When you look at these bitter ingredients infused into the waters by the fall of this great star, the wonder is not that many died, but that any lived.”*

Upon the sounding of the third trumpet "there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: … and many died of the waters, became they were made bitter." (v. 11) A star is the symbol of authority in government, not supreme (for this is represented by the sun), but subordinate, and one therefore, from the very emblem employed, who should have been the source of light and order to men. But he falls "from heaven," from the place in which he had been set by God (for the powers that be are ordained of God); that is, he is now by his fall dissevered from all connection with God, though he still burns, not as a star, but as a lamp, and thus attracts by his light and radiance. He falls upon and corrupts all the sources, the moral sources, of life, as set forth by the rivers and fountains of waters. Accordingly his name indicates the effects of his action, for a third part of the waters (the sphere and range of his influence) become wormwood, bitter and poisonous to those who drink of them, and consequently many die. (Compare Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4.) An illustration of such an effect may often be seen when one who has been prominent in the church of God becomes unfaithful or apostate, and morally destroys his hearers by infidel teachings. In manifold ways it is possible for those who have fallen from high places, whether amongst men or in the church, to poison the sources of life, and it is just this that will take place on a grand scale, alas! at the fall of the star Wormwood.

"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great turning as it were a star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp [or torch], and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." This figure signifies some person in high, though subordinate, authority, who, falling from his place, corrupts and poisons the very springs of life. It appears not to be so much a political as a spiritual apostacy, diffusing some deadly falsehood, which works like a poison in the heart and conscience, producing moral rather than physical death. Such is the figure used by Moses to describe the bitter fruits of idolatry among the Israelites, who are warned, "lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood." (Deut. 29:18.) We may illustrate the state of things from history by referring to the fearful spread of infidelity that accompanied the revolutionary outbreak already named.

In the preceding trumpet judgments things were cast upon the earth, but here is a star which falls. It is some person who claimed authority and who becomes an apostate, whose fall produces the awful results given here. It may be the final Antichrist who first may have claimed to be for Israel a great teacher with divine authority and then takes the awful plunge. Wormwood is his name and the waters became wormwood and bitter.