16:12 the great river Euphrates. Although the ocean level will rise because of the melting of the ice caps, the great rivers of the world will tend to dry up because of the intense heat of the sun, and this will especially affect the key river Euphrates, flowing by Babylon and providing the main water supply for its industries and inhabitants. Much of its water comes from its source high in the permanent ice cap on Mount Ararat, which also now conceals the remains of Noah’s ark. By this time, the drought of the first 3½ years will probably have melted this ice cap, and will have revealed the ark as a final convincing testimony to the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day and the folly of evolutionary geology. Then, the intense heat of this plague will contribute to the more rapid depletion of Euphrates compared to other great rivers.

16:12 kings of the east. The great populations of Asia (Japan, China, India, etc.) have long followed the ancient religions of occult pantheistic evolutionism. They will be easily influenced by demonic spirits to oppose the soon-returning Christ, especially when they see the Euphrates wither away, signifying to them that the ancient boundary between east and west has been removed. They will recall all too well the terrible suffering inflicted on them by the demon horsemen from the Euphrates just four years previously (Revelation 9:14-19), but now these are gone. They know too that the plagues had been called down by the two witnesses last seen in Jerusalem, and that the land promised by God to Israel had extended to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18). Even though they may have resisted the beast for a time (note Daniel 11:44), they will willingly hasten to the land of Israel to fight against Christ and His people, when the beast summons them this time.