“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
17for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
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a Gk slaves
7.1–17 A digression (based on the catchword seal) underscoring the fact that the faithful will experience divine protection during the coming catastrophes.
7.2 Seal of the living God, a signet ring used to indicate ownership and to provide protection (see Job 9.7; Sir 17.22), bearing the name of God (14.1). “Seal” was also a term for Christian baptism (see 2 Cor 1.21–22; Eph 1.13; 4.30; 2 Clement 7.6; 8.6). The four angels…damage earth, similar to the four riders who were also divine emissaries (see 6.1–8).
7.3 Those with a seal on their foreheads (see Ezek 9.4–6; Psalms of Solomon 15.6–9) are divinely protected from the plagues, as the Israelites were in Egypt (Ex 8.22; 9.4–7, 26; 10.23). It was widely held in the ancient world that magical sealing could provide protection.
7.4 One hundred forty-four thousand, the martyr-witness cadre of the church, calculated using twelve as a multiple of twelve. The number here represents the people of God but later refers to martyrs (14.1–5). The people of Israel, i.e., the church as the spiritual Israel (see Rom 9.6–7; 11.17–21; Gal 6.16; Jas 1.1).
7.9–17 A heavenly throne-room scene; see note on 4.1–11. The passage may be based in part on symbolism from the Festival of Booths (see Zech 14.16–21).
7.9 A great multitude, a heavenly assembly that may include but is not identical to the 144,000 Israelites mentioned in vv. 4–8; it represents the spiritualized fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (Gen 22.17; 32.12; cf. Rom 9.27). Its members are identified in v. 14 as the martyrs who have gone through the great tribulation. Throne. See note on 4.10. Robed in white. See note on 6.11. Palm branches, symbols of victory (see 1 Macc 13.51; 2 Macc 14.4; Jn 12.13).
7.13 One of the elders, functioning in place of the more typical figure of the interpreting angel (1.1; 17.1–18; 21.9–22.5; see Introduction), provides an explanation of the vision in vv. 14–17.
7.14 The great ordeal. See note on 3.10. Washed…white in the blood of the Lamb, paradoxical metaphor referring to the forgiveness of sins through the atoning death of Jesus (see Rom 3.25; 5.9; 1 Cor 10.16; 1 Pet 1.2).
7.15 God…will shelter them. God will be present with them or dwell with them (21.3; see Lev 26.11; Ezek 37.27).
7.16 Cessation of hunger, thirst, and intense heat alludes to the Edenic eschatological conditions described in Isa 49.10 (see also Rev 21.4).
7.17 At the center, i.e., of the throne occupied by both God and the Lamb (3.21; 22.1, 3). Shepherd, a stock metaphor for a king (see 2 Sam 7.7; Isa 44.28; Jer 3.15) in the ancient world generally and a favorite metaphor for Jesus (Mt 15.24; 25.32; Jn 10.2; Heb 13.20; 1 Pet 2.25). Springs of the water of life, lit. “springs of living water” (cf. Isa 49.10); here “living water” can mean either flowing water (as opposed to the still water stored in cisterns) or water imbued with (eternal) life, a metaphor for salvation (21.6; 22.1, 17; see also Jn 4.14; 6.35; 7.37–38). Wipe away every tear indicates the absence of sorrow in the new order (see Isa 25.8).
Revelation 8
The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
1When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
3Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. 4And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
The Seven Trumpets
6Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.
7The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were hurled to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. 9A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.
12The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise the night.
13Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
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8.1 A transitional verse. The opening of the seventh seal means that the scroll of 5.1 is now ready to be opened completely; the events narrated in 8.2–22.5 enact the contents of the scroll. After the cosmic destruction caused by the opening of the sixth seal in 6.12–17, the opening of this seal issues in an anticlimactic silence in heaven. Silence precedes divine manifestations (see Job 4.16; Zeph 1.7; Zech 2.13) and is maintained during the incense offering (see Rev 8.3–5).
8.2–9.21 See also 11.15–19. The seven trumpets (like the seven bowls of 15.1–16.21) introduce eschatological divine judgments that are loosely based on the ten Egyptian plagues (Ex 7–12), though they are universal rather than local in effect. Several variant traditions of seven Egyptian plagues have been preserved (Pss 78.44–51; 105.27–36; Am 4.6–11; Wis 11.1–19.9).
8.2–5 Preparatory heavenly throne-room scene; see note on 4.1–11.
8.2 Seven angels. See note on 1.4. Trumpets can signal the inauguration of the end (see Isa 27.13; Joel 2.1; Mt 24.31; 1 Cor 15.52; 1 Thess 4.16; Didache 16.6).
8.3 The golden altar, the heavenly counterpart of the incense altar located before the holy of holies in the tabernacle and temple (Ex 30.1–10).
8.4 The incense offering, made twice daily in the temple (Lk 1.8–10), lent itself to spiritualization; here it is associated with (but not, as in 5.8, identified with) the prayers of the saints, which, judging by their effect in 8.5, appear to have been prayers for vengeance (see 6.10).
8.5 The throwing of fire from the altar to the earth anticipates the divine judgments that the trumpets will unleash (see Ezek 10.2) and again indicate that events on earth are determined by events in heaven. Peals of thunder. See note on 4.5.
8.7–12 The first four trumpets form a group, as did the first four seals (see note on 6.1–8).
8.7 The hail, fire, and blood that fall to the earth correspond to the thunder, hail, and fir
e of the seventh plague (Ex 9.22–26) and to the fourth and seventh bowls in 16.8–9, 19–21. The Romans regarded blood raining from the sky as an omen indicating the anger of the gods. The eschatological destruction of a third of various aspects of the cosmos (based on Ezek 5.2, 12) emphasizes that the destruction is partial, not total (8.9, 10, 11, 12; 9.15, 18).
8.9 Sea became blood, an allusion to the Egyptian plague in which the Nile was turned to blood (the first plague in Ex 7.20–21; the second bowl in Rev 16.3).
8.10–11 There is no counterpart to the third trumpet among the Egyptian plagues.
8.11 Wormwood, a plant noted for bitter taste, though not poisonous effects (see Prov 5.4; Lam 3.15).
8.12 Fourth…trumpet. The darkening of the heavenly bodies resembles the darkness of the ninth plague (Ex 10.21) and of the fifth bowl (Rev 16.10).
8.13 Woe, woe, woe. The three woes become literary devices for designating the last three trumpet plagues in 9.1–12, 13–21; 11.14–19 (see 9.12; 11.14); the counterparts of blessings, woes frequently introduce divine penalties (Lk 6.24–26) and are used in judgment speeches (Isa 5.18–23; Mt 23.13–32).
Revelation 9
1And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit; 2he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. 11They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,a and in Greek he is called Apollyon.b
12The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.
13Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the fourc horns of the golden altar before God, 14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind. 16The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number. 17And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphired and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. 18By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 19For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they inflict harm.
20The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. 21And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.
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a That is, Destruction
b That is, Destroyer
c Other ancient authorities lack four
d Gk hyacinth
9.1–12 The fifth trumpet plague alludes to the locust plague of Ex 10.4–20 and is modeled after Joel 2.1–11.
9.1 Star, an angelic messenger sent by God to earth (see 20.1). Bottomless pit, the abode of the dead (see Ps 107.26; Rom 10.7) and the place where demons (Lk 8.31; 1 Enoch 18–21) and Satan (Rev 20.1–3) are imprisoned.
9.3 Locusts, an army of demons (based on the locust plague in Joel 2.1–11).
9.4 Grass…any tree, vegetation that is typically devastated by locust plagues. People who do not have the seal of God (see 7.2–8) are attacked, but God’s people are exempt.
9.5 Five months (see also v. 10), the life span of the locust.
9.6 That people will seek death but will not find it underlines the horror of this plague.
9.7 Like horses equipped for battle, based on Joel 2.4–9. The demonic locust swarm is depicted as a marauding army. Crowns of gold, symbols of domination and invincibility.
9.8 Like women’s hair. Demons are sometimes described as having disheveled hair like that of women (Testament of Solomon 13.1; Apocalypse of Zephaniah 4.4).
9.11 Angel of the bottomless pit, not Satan (12.9; 20.2), but an otherwise unknown evil angelic figure. Abaddon, Hebrew for “place of destruction,” used in wisdom literature for the realm of the dead (see Job 26.6; Prov 15.11; 27.20), here personified (see also Job 28.22). Apollyon, Greek for “destroyer,” linked with the name of the god Apollo.
9.12 The first woe corresponds to the events narrated in vv. 1–11; see note on 8.13. The two woes to come are described in 9.12–21; 11.15–19.
9.13 The four horns, the raised corners of the altar, typical of Israelite and Canaanite altars.
9.14 Release the four angels who are bound. The bind/release terminology (20.2; Tob 3.17) suggests that these are evil angels who lead demonic armies. Euphrates, a Mesopotamian river symbolizing the enemies of Israel (see Isa 7.20; 8.7; Jer 46.10).
9.18 Fire and sulfur (see also 14.10; 19.20; 20.10), stereotypical means of terrifying divine punishment first mentioned in the Bible in connection with the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Gen 19.24; Ps 11.6; Ezek 38.22).
9.20 Did not repent (see v. 21; 16.9, 11), a theme from the Exodus plague tradition (see, e.g., Ex 7.13, 22; 8.15); actual repentance is not expected. Demons, in Jewish thought the supernatural beings represented by idols and believed to inhabit them (Deut 32.17; Ps 96.5; 1 Cor 10.19–20).
Revelation 10
The Angel with the Little Scroll
1And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 2He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded. 4And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 5Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land
raised his right hand to heaven
6and swore by him who lives forever and ever,
who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will be no more delay, 7but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servantsa the prophets.”
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.
11Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
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10.1–11 Two digressions (10.1–11; 11.1–14) delay the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
10.2 The little scroll represents divine revelation but is not identical to the sealed scroll of 5.1–14.
10.3 The import of the seven thunders is unclear; John apparently understood what the seven thunders said but was forbidden to write it down.
10.4 Voice from heaven, probably God or Christ (see 1.11, 19). In Jewish tradition a heavenly voice was called a bat qol (lit. “daughter of a voice”) and thought to be the revelatory voice of God, as in the heavenly voice at Jesus’ baptism (Mt 3.17; Mk 1.11; Lk 3.22; 2 Pet 1.17). The instruction to seal up (see Dan 12.4, 9) means that some divine secrets must not be disclosed (2 Cor 12.4).
10.5–7 This scene appears to be modeled after Dan 12.6–7.
10.6 No more delay does not imply a previous postponement, but the imminent end of time and beginning of eschatological events.
10.7 Mystery of God (see Am 3.7), God’s eschatological plan, hidden in OT prophetic books (Rom 16.25–26; 1 Cor 2.6–16; Eph 3.9–10; Col 1.26). His servants the prophets, a frequent designation of OT prophets (2 Kings 9.7; 17.13; Jer 7.25; Dan 9.6; see Rev 11.18), which here probably includes Christian prophets as well.
10.8 Voice, that of v. 4.
10.9–10 Eating the scroll, a symbolic action based on Ezek 2.8–3.3, signifies accepting a prophetic commission.
10.11 Prophesy again about has the negative meaning “prophesy against,” i.e., prophesy judgment (see Jer 25.30; Ezek 25.2).
Revelation 11
The Two Witnesses
1Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. 3And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.”
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