I. Pestilence (1,2)

Angels Dispatched "And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." - This voice originates in the temple of God in heaven. In chapter 15 the temple was portrayed as being filled with the smoke of the glory of God and that access to God had been terminated until the last seven plagues have been consummated. Nothing will be permitted to placate or delay the awfulness of God judgment. The seven angels are commissioned to empty the bowls of pent-up wrath of a holy God. Judgment follows each new outpouring from the bowls.

Jer 10:25 "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate."

• Putrid Appearance - The word "noisome" conveys that which is offensive and disgusting in every way. The picture is that of oozing sores filled with corruption.

• Painful Abscess - The connotation seems to point to the kind of ulcerated skin that afflicted Job.

Job 2:7,8 "So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes."
 
• Persons Afflicted - This plague is limited to those people who have identified themselves with Antichrist by receiving his mark and by worshipping in the required public display of loyalty before the image of the beast.