Bible Dictionary
WORMWOOD, THE STAR
In Revelation, Wormwood is the figurative name of a great star that falls upon rivers and springs, making their waters bitter and causing many deaths. It represents a severe divine judgment or calamity.
Definition
Wormwood is the figurative name given to a great star in the apocalyptic vision of Revelation. The name evokes bitterness and is associated with severe calamity or judgment.
Biblical Usage
At the sounding of the third trumpet, Wormwood falls from heaven upon a third of the rivers and springs, making their waters bitter. Many people die from the bitterness, which may signify a divine judgment affecting a nation’s internal sources of prosperity.
Historical Background
Older interpreters associated the star with barbarian invasions of the Roman empire, including invasions attributed to Attila or Genseric.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>In Re 8:11, the name is figurative, given to a great star which, at the sounding of the third angel's trumpet, fell from heaven upon the third part of the rivers and on the fountains of the waters, turning them to a bitterness of which many died. Wormwood is used of bitter calamities (of La 3:15), and may here indicate some judgment, inflicted under a noted leader, affecting chiefly the internal sources of a country's prosperity. Older expositors, applying the earlier trumpets to the downfall of the Roman empire, saw in the star a symbol of the barbarian invasions of Attila or Genseric.</p><p>See also ASTRONOMY, sec. I, 8.</p><p>James Orr</p>