Isaiah 63:3

63:3 “I have stomped grapes in the winepress all by myself;

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ¹  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ²  all my clothes.

Revelation 14:19-20

14:19 So ³  the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard ⁴  of the earth and tossed them into the great ⁵  winepress of the wrath of God. 14:20 Then ⁶  the winepress was stomped ⁷  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ⁸  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ⁹ 

Revelation 19:15

19:15 From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. ¹⁰  He ¹¹  will rule ¹²  them with an iron rod, ¹³  and he stomps the winepress ¹⁴  of the furious ¹⁵  wrath of God, the All-Powerful. ¹⁶ 

¹ sn Nations, headed by Edom, are the object of the Lord’s anger (see v. 6). He compares military slaughter to stomping on grapes in a vat.

² tn Heb “and I stained.” For discussion of the difficult verb form, see HALOT 170 s.v. II גאל. Perhaps the form is mixed, combining the first person forms of the imperfect (note the alef prefix) and perfect (note the תי- ending).

³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s directions.

⁴ tn Or “vine.” BDAG 54 s.v. ἄμπελος a states, “τρυγᾶν τοὺς βότρυας τῆς ἀ. τῆς γῆς to harvest the grapes fr. the vine of the earth (i.e. fr. the earth, symbol. repr. as a grapevine) Rv 14:18f; but ἀ may be taking on the meaning of ἀμπελών, as oft. in pap., possibly PHib. 70b, 2 [III bc].” The latter alternative has been followed in the translation (ἀμπελών = “vineyard”).

⁵ tn Although the gender of μέγαν (megan, masc.) does not match the gender of ληνόν (lhnon, fem.) it has been taken to modify that word (as do most English translations).

⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

⁷ sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

⁸ tn L&N 6.7 states, “In Re 14:20 the reference to a bit and bridle is merely an indication of measurement, that is to say, the height of the bit and bridle from the ground, and one may reinterpret this measurement as ‘about a meter and a half’ or ‘about five feet.’”

⁹ tn Grk “1,600 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m). Thus the distance here would be 184 mi or 296 km.

¹⁰ tn Or “the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹² tn Grk “will shepherd.”

¹³ tn Or “scepter.” The Greek term ῥάβδος (rJabdo") can mean either “rod” or “scepter.”

¹⁴ sn He stomps the winepress. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process), and Rev 14:20.

¹⁵ tn The genitive θυμοῦ (qumou) has been translated as an attributed genitive. Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumos) and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9).

¹⁶ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”