Revelation 14:20

14:20 Then ¹  the winepress was stomped ²  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ³  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ⁴ 

Psalms 58:10

58:10 The godly ⁵  will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out;

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

Isaiah 9:5

9:5 Indeed every boot that marches and shakes the earth ⁶ 

and every garment dragged through blood

is used as fuel for the fire.

Isaiah 34:3-8

34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, ⁷ 

their corpses will stink; ⁸ 

the hills will soak up their blood. ⁹ 

34:4 All the stars in the sky will fade away, ¹⁰ 

the sky will roll up like a scroll;

all its stars will wither,

like a leaf withers and falls from a vine

or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ¹¹ 

34:5 He says, ¹²  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ¹³ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ¹⁴ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ¹⁵  with fat;

it drips ¹⁶  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹⁷  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁸  in Bozrah, ¹⁹ 

a bloody ²⁰  slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered ²¹  along with them,

as well as strong bulls. ²² 

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, ²³ 

a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. ²⁴ 

Isaiah 63:1-6

The Victorious Divine Warrior

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, ²⁵ 

dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? ²⁶ 

Who ²⁷  is this one wearing royal attire, ²⁸ 

who marches confidently ²⁹  because of his great strength?

“It is I, the one who announces vindication,

and who is able to deliver!” ³⁰ 

63:2 Why are your clothes red?

Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? ³¹ 

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

no one from the nations joined me.

I stomped on them ³²  in my anger;

I trampled them down in my rage.

Their juice splashed on my garments,

and stained ³³  all my clothes.

63:4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance,

and then payback time arrived. ³⁴ 

63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ³⁵ 

So my right arm accomplished deliverance;

my raging anger drove me on. ³⁶ 

63:6 I trampled nations in my anger,

I made them drunk ³⁷  in my rage,

I splashed their blood on the ground.” ³⁸ 

[14:20]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[14:20]  ² sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

[14:20]  ³ 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.’”

[14:20]  ⁴ 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.

[58:10]  ⁵ tn The singular is representative here, as is the singular from “wicked” in the next line.

[9:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “Indeed every boot marching with shaking.” On the meaning of סְאוֹן (sÿ’on, “boot”) and the related denominative verb, both of which occur only here, see HALOT 738 s.v. סְאוֹן.

[34:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “will be cast aside”; NASB, NIV “thrown out.”

[34:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “[as for] their corpses, their stench will arise.”

[34:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “hills will dissolve from their blood.”

[34:4]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “and all the host of heaven will rot.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a inserts “and the valleys will be split open,” but this reading may be influenced by Mic 1:4. On the other hand, the statement, if original, could have been omitted by homoioarcton, a scribe’s eye jumping from the conjunction prefixed to “the valleys” to the conjunction prefixed to the verb “rot.”

[34:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like the withering of a leaf from a vine, and like the withering from a fig tree.”

[34:5]  ¹² tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  ¹⁴ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ¹⁶ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁷ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁹ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[34:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”

[34:7]  ²² tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.

[34:8]  ²³ tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”

[34:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”

[63:1]  ²⁵ sn Edom is here an archetype for the Lord’s enemies. See 34:5.

[63:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “[in] bright red garments, from Bozrah.”

[63:1]  ²⁷ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the first line of the verse.

[63:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “honored in his clothing”; KJV, ASV “glorious in his apparel.”

[63:1]  ²⁹ tc The Hebrew text has צָעָה (tsa’ah), which means “stoop, bend” (51:14). The translation assumes an emendation to צָעַד (tsa’ad, “march”; see BDB 858 s.v. צָעָה).

[63:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I, [the one] speaking in vindication [or “righteousness”], great to deliver.”

[63:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “and your garments like one who treads in a vat?”

[63:3]  ³² 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.

[63:3]  ³³ 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).

[63:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “for the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my revenge came.” The term גְּאוּלַי (gÿ’ulai) is sometimes translated here “my redemption,” for the verbal root גאל often means “deliver, buy back.” A גֹּאֵל (go’el, “kinsman-redeemer”) was responsible for protecting the extended family’s interests, often by redeeming property that had been sold outside the family. However, the responsibilities of a גֹּאֵל extended beyond financial concerns. He was also responsible for avenging the shed blood of a family member (see Num 35:19-27; Deut 19:6-12). In Isa 63:4, where vengeance is a prominent theme (note the previous line), it is probably this function of the family protector that is in view. The Lord pictures himself as a blood avenger who waits for the day of vengeance to arrive and then springs into action.

[63:5]  ³⁵ sn See Isa 59:16 for similar language.

[63:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and my anger, it supported me”; NIV “my own wrath sustained me.”

[63:6]  ³⁷ sn See Isa 49:26 and 51:23 for similar imagery.

[63:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and I brought down to the ground their juice.” “Juice” refers to their blood (see v. 3).