Revelation 16:10. The fifth poured out his bowl into the throne of the beast. With the fifth bowl we pass into a different region, that of the spiritual powers of darkness. This bowl attacks the very centre of the beast's authority, and the advance from the fifth trumpet is very perceptible. There the hosts of the bottomless pit come forth to plague men. Here the king of these hosts is himself plagued. The ‘throne' of the beast is no particular city, but is a symbol of the beast's general power.

And his kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for pain. The Egyptian plague of darkness is the foundation of the figure. The addition of the ‘gnawing of the tongue for pain' is remarkable, for the pain could not proceed from the darkness. It could come from nothing but the effects of the previous plagues. Each successive plague thus supposes those that had gone before it to be still raging. Each successive woe is added to its predecessors without the latter being suppressed. If it be so, it becomes more impossible than ever to interpret any one of these plagues literally.

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Old Testament