Greek word · G2166

Εὐφράτης

euphratēs

Euphrates

The Euphrates, the longest river of western Asia, flowing through Mesopotamia past the site of ancient Babylon. In the Old Testament it is often called simply "the River" or "the great river".

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 30, 2026

What it means

Εὐφράτης, -ου, ὁ

the river Euphrates: Revelation 9:14 16:12.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Revelation 16:12

Range of meaning: The Euphrates, the longest river of western Asia, flowing through Mesopotamia past the site of ancient Babylon. In the Old Testament it is often called simply "the River" or "the great river".
Against the English: English versions all keep the name. What a modern reader misses is what the river stood for, not the translation.
Used elsewhere in the period: It is the far limit of the land promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18; Josh 1:4) and the homeland of Israel's invaders: Isaiah pictures the Assyrian king as "the waters of the River, mighty and many" flooding Judah (Isa 8:7). In the first century it was the recognised boundary between Rome and Parthia (Strabo; Tacitus). In Rev 9:14 four angels "bound at the great river Euphrates" are released to lead a vast cavalry. 1 Enoch 56:5–7 pictures angels stirring up "the Parthians and Medes" to invade the land of the chosen, and 4 Ezra 13:43–47 says God once stopped the Euphrates' channels for the exiled tribes and will do so again at the end.

From the study of Revelation 9:14

Range of meaning: The great river of Mesopotamia. In the Hebrew Bible it is 'the River' or 'the great river' (Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7; Josh 1:4), the ideal north-eastern limit of the promised land. Beyond it lay the homelands of Assyria and Babylon.
Against the English: The English simply transliterates the name, which is fine. The risk is that modern readers hear only a dot on a map of present-day Syria and Iraq. For first hearers it was a loaded frontier.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isaiah 8:7 (Assyria as 'the mighty flood waters of the River'); Isaiah 7:20 (the razor 'hired beyond the River'); Jeremiah 46:10 (God's 'sacrifice … by the river Euphrates'); Jeremiah 1:14 and 6:1, 22 (disaster from the north, the route invaders took after crossing the Euphrates). In Roman times it was the eastern frontier with Parthia (Tacitus, Annals 15; Sibylline Oracles 4.119–139 on Nero fleeing beyond the Euphrates and returning). Revelation 16:12 has the Euphrates dried up 'for the kings from the east'.

Where it appears

Revelation · 2

Revelation 9:14 Εὐφράτῃ. Euphrates.

saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Here: The river of Mesopotamia. Assyria and Babylon came from beyond it, and in John's day it was the border between Rome and the feared Parthian empire.
Revelation 16:12 Εὐφράτην, Euphrates,

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.

Here: The great river of Mesopotamia: the river of ancient Babylon and, in John's day, the frontier between the Roman Empire and the Parthian kingdom to the east.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.