The severity of this tempest is dramatized by showing it as destroying much of the vegetation of the earth.

 This fraction occurs repeatedly in the Revelation (see vs. 8, 9, 11, 12; chs. 9:15, 18; 12:4; cf. Zech. 13:8, 9). It probably implies a substantial part, but not a major portion.

 The earth, with its vegetation, is shown as the particular target of this scourge (cf. ch. 16:2). The scourge is singularly descriptive of the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Visigoths under Alaric. This was the first of the Teutonic incursions into the Roman Empire that played such an important part in its final downfall. Beginning about A.D. 396, the Visigoths overran Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece in the eastern part of the empire. Later they crossed the Alps and pillaged the city of Rome in A.D. 410. They also ravaged much of what is now France and ultimately settled in Spain.

 The picture here is that of a great storm of hail mixed with lightning, reminiscent of the seventh plague in Egypt (Ex. 9:22-25).