A great star … blazing like a torch: this seems to depict a huge falling star or a blazing comet. For torch see 4.5.

From heaven: in many languages it will be more natural to say “fell (or, dropped) from the sky,” as in Good News Translation.

On a third of the rivers: this destruction affects one third of the fresh water on the earth’s surface, as contrasted with the oceans of verses 8-9. The Greek text says quite specifically that it fell (as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have it), and that is how a translation must render it.

And on the fountains of water: this seems to mean all fountains of water on the earth’s surface. In light of what is said in verse 11, however, it is quite certain that what is meant is one third of the fountains of water (see the same thing with “all green grass” in verse 8). Translators are urged to translate it this way. For fountains of water see “springs of living water” in 7.17.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .