The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not happened since there were men on the earth, so great an earthquake, and so mighty. The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on people. People blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for this plague is exceedingly severe.
Hailstones weighing approximately 34 kilograms each can fall from the sky during a supernaturally triggered storm.
Show this passage in
The cited passage
What current science says
The largest verified hailstone on record fell in Vivian, South Dakota in 2010 — it was 20 cm in diameter and weighed about 0.88 kg (just under 2 lbs). A 34 kg hailstone would need to be roughly 40 cm in diameter (basketball-sized) and would require updrafts far stronger than anything observed in Earth's atmosphere. The strongest supercell thunderstorms produce updrafts of about 60 m/s; suspending a 34 kg ice chunk would need updrafts that don't exist in terrestrial meteorology. At terminal velocity, a 34 kg hailstone would hit the ground at roughly 160 m/s (360 mph) — it wouldn't just injure someone, it would create a small crater.
What the text says
This comes from Revelation 16:17-21. The text describes hail 'about the weight of a talent' falling on people — a talent being roughly 34 kg (75 lbs). Combined again with voices, thunder, lightning, and 'a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth.'
Three honest ways to read this passage
-
As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
-
As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
-
As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.