1. Revelation 11:13 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Is the collapse of a tenth of the city catastrophic?

Revelation 11:13 (ESV)

13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Of course it is, as is the death of seven thousand people. Yet the reference to a tenth is striking inasmuch as the plagues following the first four trumpets resulted in a third of the earth and the sea and the waters and the sun being touched (Revelation 8:7–12). Now only one house in ten collapse so that nine out of every ten survive. Damage in that sense is relatively minimal and life can continue.