Revelation 19: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A great crowd in heaven praises God for judging the great prostitute and avenging the blood of his servants, and a voice from the throne calls all God's servants to join in. The praise turns to the marriage of the Lamb, whose bride has made herself ready, and John is told to write that those invited to the wedding supper are blessed; when John tries to worship the one speaking, he is told to worship God instead. Heaven then opens and a rider called Faithful and True, named The Word of God, comes out on a white horse with the armies of heaven behind him. An angel calls the birds to the great supper of God, the beast and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of burning sulfur, and the rest are killed by the sword from the rider's mouth.

Claim by Claim

1. 19:1
   • After these things John heard a great voice of many people in heaven.
   • The voice said, Alleluia.
   • The voice declared that salvation belongs to the Lord our God.
   • The voice declared that glory belongs to the Lord our God.
   • The voice declared that honour belongs to the Lord our God.
   • The voice declared that power belongs to the Lord our God.
2. 19:2
   • God's judgments are true and righteous.
   • God has judged the great prostitute.
   • The great prostitute corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality.
   • God has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
3. 19:3
   • They said Alleluia a second time.
   • Her smoke goes up for ever and ever.
4. 19:4
   • The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down.
   • They worshipped God, who sits on the throne.
   • They said, Amen, Alleluia.
5. 19:5
   • A voice came out from the throne.
   • The voice commanded all God's servants to praise our God.
   • The voice commanded those who fear him to praise him.
   • The command was addressed to both small and great.
6. 19:6
   • John heard what sounded like the voice of a great multitude, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders.
   • The voice said, Alleluia.
   • The reason given is that the Lord God the Almighty reigns.
7. 19:7
   • The voice called for gladness and rejoicing.
   • The voice called for giving honour to him.
   • The marriage of the Lamb has come.
   • His wife has made herself ready.
8. 19:8
   • It was granted to her to be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean.
   • The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9. 19:9
   • He told John to write.
   • Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
   • He told John that these are the true words of God.
10. 19:10
    • John fell at his feet to worship him.
    • He told John not to do that.
    • He said he is John's fellow servant.
    • He said he is a fellow servant of John's brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus.
    • He commanded John to worship God.
    • The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
11. 19:11
    • John saw heaven opened.
    • John saw a white horse.
    • The one sitting on the horse is called Faithful and True.
    • He judges in righteousness.
    • He makes war in righteousness.
12. 19:12
    • His eyes were like a flame of fire.
    • On his head were many diadems.
    • He had a name written on him.
    • No one knew that name except himself.
13. 19:13
    • He was clothed with a garment dipped in blood.
    • His name is called The Word of God.
14. 19:14
    • The armies in heaven followed him on white horses.
    • Those armies were clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15. 19:15
    • A sharp sword goes out of his mouth.
    • The purpose of the sword is that with it he should strike the nations.
    • He will rule them with a rod of iron.
    • He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.
16. 19:16
    • He has a name written on his garment and on his thigh.
    • The name is KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
17. 19:17
    • John saw an angel standing in the sun.
    • The angel cried with a loud voice to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven.
    • The angel told them to come and gather themselves together to the supper of the great God.
18. 19:18
    • The purpose was that they might eat the flesh of kings.
    • They would eat the flesh of commanders.
    • They would eat the flesh of mighty men.
    • They would eat the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them.
    • They would eat the flesh of all people, both free and slave, both small and great.
19. 19:19
    • John saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together.
    • They were gathered to make war against the one who sat on the horse.
    • They were gathered to make war against his army.
20. 19:20
    • The beast was captured.
    • The false prophet was captured with the beast.
    • The false prophet had performed signs before the beast.
    • By those signs he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast.
    • By those signs he deceived those who worshipped the beast's image.
    • Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone.
21. 19:21
    • The rest were killed with the sword of the one who sat on the horse.
    • That sword came out of his mouth.
    • All the birds were filled with their flesh.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

19:1

"Alleluia" is the Greek form of the Hebrew phrase hallelu-Yah, "praise Yah," using the shortened form of God's name. It stands at the head or foot of many psalms. In the whole New Testament it occurs only in this chapter, four times.

19:2

In the Hebrew prophets a city or nation that sold its loyalty for wealth and power was routinely pictured as a prostitute, and its dealings as "fornication." The figure here is the city called Babylon in chapters 17 and 18. "Avenged the blood of his servants at her hand" is legal language: he has exacted the penalty from her for the killings she carried out.

19:3

In prophetic descriptions of a ruined city, rising smoke is the standing image of a place burned and never rebuilt.

19:4

The KJV's "four beasts" translates a Greek word meaning living creatures, and these are the winged figures around the throne first described in chapter 4. It is a completely different word from the "beast" of verses 19 and 20, which is a hostile political power. The English of 1611 blurs two things the Greek keeps apart.

19:5

"Fear him" in older English means to hold in awe and reverence, not to be frightened of him. "Both small and great" is a stock phrase for everyone regardless of rank or importance.

19:6

"Omnipotent" simply means all-powerful; this is the only place the KJV uses the word. The Greek verb behind "reigneth" is a past-tense form that can mean either "has taken up his reign" or, of a state now in force, "reigns." Both senses are defensible here.

19:7

A Jewish wedding had two stages: a binding betrothal, then later the groom bringing the bride to his home with a feast. Because the betrothal was already legally binding, the Greek word here can be translated either "wife" (as the KJV does) or "bride." The prophets had long used marriage as a picture of the bond between God and his people. "The Lamb" is the title used for Jesus throughout Revelation, from chapter 5 onward.

19:8

"Saints" in the KJV does not mean a special class of exceptional people; it renders a word meaning simply God's holy people, all of them. The word the KJV gives as "righteousness" is plural in Greek, "righteous deeds," which is why the rendering speaks of things done. Fine linen was costly cloth, the dress of priests, royalty and the wealthy.

19:9

A wedding feast in this world was a multi-day banquet to which guests were formally invited, and an invitation from a great host was a mark of standing. "Blessed" here means fortunate, well off, in the position one would want to be in; it is the seventh of seven such sayings scattered through Revelation.

19:10

"See thou do it not" is emphatic 1611 English for "don't do that." The phrase "the testimony of Jesus" is grammatically ambiguous in Greek and can mean either the testimony Jesus himself gave or the testimony believers give about him; the same ambiguity runs through both halves of the verse, and the Greek does not settle it.

19:11

A white horse was what a victorious Roman general rode in his triumphal procession, so the animal itself signals a conqueror. "In righteousness he doth judge and make war" means his judging and his warring are both conducted rightly, not that the war is in addition to the judging.

19:12

The Greek word behind "crowns" here is diadem, the jeweled band worn by a reigning king, not the leafy wreath given to an athlete or a victor. Many of them at once indicates rule over many kingdoms.

19:13

"Vesture" is simply a garment or robe. The picture draws on Isaiah 63:1-3, where a figure comes from battle with clothing stained as if from treading grapes. Interpreters differ on whose blood is meant, his enemies' or his own, and the wording here does not decide it.

19:14

The clothing described is the same fine linen given to the bride in verse 8, not armor, and no weapon is attributed to these armies anywhere in the scene.

19:15

Three separate images. The sword is a large broad blade, and its coming from his mouth means his weapon is his spoken word. "Rule them with a rod of iron" quotes Psalm 2:9; the Greek verb is actually "shepherd," and the rod is the iron-tipped club a shepherd carried, so the phrase holds both shepherding and striking together. A winepress was a stone trough where grapes were trampled barefoot until the juice ran out through a channel, and the juice running red made it a standard image for slaughter.

19:16

Statues in the ancient world often carried an inscription on the thigh or on the edge of the garment at the thigh, which is where a rider's clothing would be visible to someone on the ground. "King of kings and lord of lords" was the formal title of Persian and other eastern emperors, a claim to rule over other rulers.

19:17

"In the midst of heaven" means at the high point of the sky, directly overhead. The birds are scavengers, vultures and crows. To be left unburied for them was the deepest possible disgrace for a fallen soldier, and this summons deliberately echoes Ezekiel 39:17-20.

19:18

"Captains" renders a term for officers commanding a thousand men. "Bond" means enslaved, the opposite of free. "Small and great" again covers everyone of every rank.

19:19

"The beast" is the political power described in chapter 13, which rose from the sea and was given authority over the nations.

19:20

The false prophet is the second beast of chapter 13, which performed signs and made people honor the first. "Wrought miracles" means performed signs or wonders; "his image" is a statue set up to be worshiped; "the mark of the beast" refers back to the stamp on hand or forehead in chapter 13:16-17 without which people could not buy or sell. "Brimstone" is the old English word for sulfur, which burns with a choking smell and was associated with volcanic destruction.

19:21

"The remnant" here carries none of its usual prophetic sense of a surviving faithful few. It means simply the rest, everyone else in the assembled armies.