The eagle utters the word “woe” three times in order to warn the inhabitants of the earth of the upcoming trumpet blasts. The threefold repetition of the word “woe” is very significant. If we want to emphasize something we shout it out, or perhaps we print it in bold letters. In this case the eagle shouts it out (“with a loud voice”) and he repeats it three times. This eagle is stressing that what he has to say is very, very serious. The coming trumpet blasts will have an exceeding serious message—so serious that a warning of what is coming must be sounded as loudly and as emphatically as possible.
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”