Revelation 16:1–21 follows in unbroken fashion on Revelation 15:1–8. This is one uninterrupted vision which must be read as a unity. That means, for example, that as we read in chapter 16 about the content of the bowls being poured out, we must remember chapter 15’s explanation of what made the content of those bowls—God’s wrath—so horrid. Similarly, as we read chapter 16, we may not lose sight of the significance of the smoke-filled sanctuary of Revelation 15:8.
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”