<p>16:16 <em>And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-magedon</em>- Perhaps this is explaining how the earlier judgment upon the throne / seat of the beast happens (:10).</p><p>&quot;Megiddo&quot; and the descriptions of Sisera <em>gathering</em> his chariots and God <em>drawing</em> them into battle (Jud. 5:19) must link with the nations being <em>gathered</em> to Armageddon (Rev. 16:16).&nbsp; If this connection is valid, then &quot;the kings of the earth (land - of Israel?) and of the whole world&quot; which are&nbsp;gathered (Rev. 16:14) would primarily refer to the kings of the Islamic world within and around the earth / land promised to Abraham, Sisera of the latter days.</p><p>Rev. 16:14-16 and Rev. 19:19 appear to be based upon the ideas of the 'gathering together' of Israel's local enemies outlined in the commentary on Rev. 16:14, and also upon <a href=http://www.n-e-v.info/cm/zech12com.html>Zech. 12:3</a>. &quot;The kings of the earth&quot; can be interpreted as in Zech. 12:3;&rdquo;&nbsp;of the whole world&quot; may refer to the world in relation to Israel (as in Dan. 2), or possibly to the fact that all nations literally will be incited to attack Israel, kidded by the beast that some &quot;final solution&quot; to the Middle Eastern problem is necessary. 'Armageddon' meaning 'the valley of Megiddo', takes us back to Zech. 12:9,11: &quot;I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem... in that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as... in the valley of Megiddon&quot;. The conclusion from this is that although a minority within Israel have repented before their victory in the valley of Jehoshaphat (the same area in terms of prophecy), according to the typology of 2 Chron. 20 and other passages, their full realization of the enormity of their sin of crucifying Jesus only comes home to them on seeing His complete rout of their enemies.&nbsp;Thus their returning to Jerusalem with joy (2 Chron. 20:27) will be preceded by, or mixed with, tears of pent-up emotional release. The similarity of the 'gather together' language has led us to associate the following:- <br />-&nbsp; The gathering together of Israel's Arab enemies against her at various times <br />-&nbsp; The gathering of the Arab nations into a valley near Jerusalem (2 Chron. 20:16, A.V. mg.) for destruction in Hezekiah's time <br />-&nbsp; Joel's prophecy of all nations being gathered into the &quot;valley of Jehoshaphat&quot; (3:2) <br />-&nbsp; The gathering together of the Arab nations into the 'valley of Megiddo' (Rev. 16:16) to fight Israel in the last days.</p><p>It could be objected that the valley of Megiddo is in the North of Israel whilst that of Jehoshaphat is in the South, near Jerusalem.&nbsp;However, the other similarities of language and context are so great as to suggest that they must refer to the same place. It may be that Megiddo having been the scene of many previous Arab battles in Israel's history, it is being used symbolically in Rev. 16:16 rather than as a literal geographical reference. Back in Rev. 16, the sixth vial has described how the nations will be gathered to their place of judgment in Armageddon.&nbsp;The seventh vial then records the destruction of Babylon, who receives &quot;the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath&quot; in the form of huge hailstones (Rev. 16:19,21).&nbsp;This equates the nations who are gathered to Armageddon with Babylon, which heads up the coalition elsewhere known as the beast.&nbsp;The cup of the wrath of God alludes to Zech. 12:2,3, where the peoples from the jihadist nations also are &quot;gathered together&quot; and have burdened themselves with Jerusalem are made to drink &quot;a cup of trembling&quot; by reason of doing so.&nbsp;The punishment with giant hailstones recalls how Israel's enemies were destroyed in the time of Joshua/Jesus (Josh. 20:11). This confirms our interpretation of 'Babylon' as having a Middle Eastern context.</p><p>The unclean spirits or teachings released from the beast and his publicity agents gather the nations together to Armageddon. &ldquo;Armageddon&rdquo; (Rev. 16:16) is from the Hebrew <em>har-magedon</em>. <em>Har</em> means &lsquo;mountain&rsquo;. The assumption has been made that <em>magedon&acute;</em>is the same as &lsquo;Megiddo&rsquo;; but the problem is, Megiddo is a plain and there is no mountain there. Also, the word <em>magedon </em>would be spelt slightly differently if it were simply the place name Megiddo. The suggestion has been made and well argued that <em>magedon</em> is a form of the Hebrew <em>mo&rsquo;ed</em>, and would literally mean &ldquo;the mount of assembly / gathering&rdquo;- the title of Jerusalem in Is. 14:13 see Meredith Kline, &lsquo;Har Magedon&rsquo;, <em>Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society</em> 39/2 (June 1996) pp. 207-222, available online. He explains the presence of the &lsquo;g&rsquo; on the basis that the Hebrew consonant <em>ayin </em>is often represented by the Greek <em>gamma</em>. Rev. 16 says that all nations are gathered to Armageddon, but elsewhere we read of all nations being gathered to Jerusalem. The two localities are surely identical, quite apart from the linguistic arguments. We can expect, therefore, far more focus specifically upon Jerusalem. For this is to be the centre to which all are gathered. This makes perfect sense if we see <em>magedon </em>as a Greek rendering of the Hebrew <em>mo&rsquo;ed</em>- the nations are gathered to the mount of gathering. The king of Babylon / Assyria so wished to come to the &ldquo;mount of assembly / gathering&rdquo; (Is. 14:13), and it was that desire, and executing it, which was effectively his gathering to judgment. And so it will be with the Islamist obsession with Jerusalem- their gathering there will effectively be their gathering to judgment. Associating Armageddon with Jerusalem would more naturally fit with the upcoming description of &quot;the great city&quot;, Jerusalem, being judged by an earthquake (:19).</p>