8. In the history of Israel the armies invading their lands had come from the river Euphrates, and that historical fact was used in verse twelve as the symbol of Judea being over-run from that quarter. The drying of the river Euphrates that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared represented the removal of all barriers which hindered the progress of the powers to strike the final blow of the war against Judah and Jerusalem. It was related in symbolism to the feat of Cyrus in the military operation to divert the same river Euphrates for the capture of the old literal Babylon. This historical basis may be reasonably regarded as supplying the outline of this imagery. (6) The smiting of the Euphrates which evaporated its waters: “ And the. sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” --16:12. It has been noted that the symbol of this verse was based on the history of Israel’ s enemies invading Judea from beyond the Euphrates in their western aggressions. The drying of the river by the pouring of the sixth vial symbolizes obliterating all deterrents to the hordes overrunning Judea and besieging Jerusalem. An allusion to the Israelites crossing over the emptied bed of the Jordan was not outside the imagery, in which application judgment was executed on the nation there victorious but here apostate. The verses that follow from thirteen to sixteen describe the gathering armies for the final battle in the overthrow of Jerusalem, with the spiritual overtones of the conflict between the forces of Judaism and heathenism on one side, and Christianity (the church) on the other. Previous comments in verse 16 of this chapter on Armageddon make further discussion here unnecessary. It is sufficient to add that the sixth plague was descriptive of the battle which destroyed this symbolic Babylon-- the apostate harlot Jerusalem, causing great mourning for Jerusalem among the Jewish tribes everywhere.