Revelation 6:12-17

6:12 Then ¹  I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge ²  earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, ³  and the full moon became blood red; ⁴  6:13 and the stars in the sky ⁵  fell to the earth like a fig tree dropping ⁶  its unripe figs ⁷  when shaken by a fierce ⁸  wind. 6:14 The sky ⁹  was split apart ¹⁰  like a scroll being rolled up, ¹¹  and every mountain and island was moved from its place. 6:15 Then ¹²  the kings of the earth, the ¹³  very important people, the generals, ¹⁴  the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave ¹⁵  and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 6:16 They ¹⁶  said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷  6:17 because the great day of their ¹⁸  wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” ¹⁹ 

Psalms 2:8-9

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ²⁰ 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

2:9 You will break them ²¹  with an iron scepter; ²² 

you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’” ²³ 

Psalms 21:8-12

21:8 You ²⁴  prevail over ²⁵  all your enemies;

your power is too great for those who hate you. ²⁶ 

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ²⁷  when you appear; ²⁸ 

the Lord angrily devours them; ²⁹ 

the fire consumes them.

21:10 You destroy their offspring ³⁰  from the earth,

their descendants ³¹  from among the human race. ³² 

21:11 Yes, ³³  they intend to do you harm; ³⁴ 

they dream up a scheme, ³⁵  but they do not succeed. ³⁶ 

21:12 For you make them retreat ³⁷ 

when you shoot your arrows at them. ³⁸ 

Psalms 110:5

110:5 O sovereign Lord, ³⁹  at your right hand

he strikes down ⁴⁰  kings in the day he unleashes his anger. ⁴¹ 

Jeremiah 50:44

50:44 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan

scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it.

So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land.

Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose.

For there is no one like me.

There is no one who can call me to account.

There is no ruler that can stand up against me.

Daniel 2:44

2:44 In the days of those kings the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will not be destroyed and a kingdom that will not be left to another people. It will break in pieces and bring about the demise of all these kingdoms. But it will stand forever.

Daniel 7:26-27

7:26 But the court will convene, ⁴²  and his ruling authority will be removed –

destroyed and abolished forever!

7:27 Then the kingdom, authority,

and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven

will be delivered to the people of the holy ones ⁴³  of the Most High.

His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;

all authorities will serve him and obey him.’

Daniel 7:1

Daniel has a Vision of Four Animals Coming up from the Sea

7:1 In the first ⁴⁴  year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had ⁴⁵  a dream filled with visions ⁴⁶  while he was lying on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream in summary fashion. ⁴⁷ 

Colossians 1:24

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

[6:12]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[6:12]  ² tn Or “powerful”; Grk “a great.”

[6:12]  ³ tn Or “like hairy sackcloth” (L&N 8.13).

[6:12]  ⁴ tn Grk “like blood,” understanding αἷμα (aima) as a blood-red color rather than actual blood (L&N 8.64).

[6:13]  ⁵ tn Or “in heaven” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”). The genitive τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (tou ouranou) is taken as a genitive of place.

[6:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “throws [off]”; the indicative verb has been translated as a participle due to English style.

[6:13]  ⁷ tn L&N 3.37 states, “a fig produced late in the summer season (and often falling off before it ripens) – ‘late fig.’ ὡς συκὴ βάλλει τοὺς ὀλύνθους αὐτῆς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου μεγάλου σειομένη ‘as the fig tree sheds its late figs when shaken by a great wind’ Re 6:13. In the only context in which ὄλυνθος occurs in the NT (Re 6:13), one may employ an expression such as ‘unripe fig’ or ‘fig which ripens late.’”

[6:13]  ⁸ tn Grk “great wind.”

[6:14]  ⁹ tn Or “The heavens were.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) can mean either “heaven” or “sky.”

[6:14]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 125 s.v. ἀποχωρίζω states, “ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη the sky was split Rv 6:14.” Although L&N 79.120 gives the meaning “the sky disappeared like a rolled-up scroll” here, a scroll that is rolled up does not “disappear,” and such a translation could be difficult for modern readers to understand.

[6:14]  ¹¹ tn On this term BDAG 317 s.v. ἑλίσσω states, “ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον like a scroll that is rolled up…Rv 6:14.”

[6:15]  ¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[6:15]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated; nor is it translated before each of the following categories, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[6:15]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “chiliarchs.” A chiliarch was normally a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

[6:15]  ¹⁵ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[6:16]  ¹⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:16]  ¹⁷ tn It is difficult to say where this quotation ends. The translation ends it after “withstand it” at the end of v. 17, but it is possible that it should end here, after “Lamb” at the end of v. 16. If it ends after “Lamb,” v. 17 is a parenthetical explanation by the author.

[6:17]  ¹⁸ tc Most mss (A Ï bo) change the pronoun “their” to “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou) in order to bring the text in line with the mention of the one seated on the throne in the immediately preceding verse, and to remove the ambiguity about whose wrath is in view here. The reading αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”) is well supported by א C 1611 1854 2053 2329 2344 pc latt sy. On both internal and external grounds, it should be regarded as original.

[6:17]  ¹⁹ tn The translation “to withstand (it)” for ἵστημι (Jisthmi) is based on the imagery of holding one’s ground in a military campaign or an attack (BDAG 482 s.v. B.4).

[2:8]  ²⁰ sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[2:9]  ²¹ tc The LXX reads “you will shepherd them.” This reading, quoted in the Greek text of the NT in Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15, assumes a different vocalization of the consonantal Hebrew text and understands the verb as רָעָה (ra’ah, “to shepherd”) rather than רָעָע (ra’a’, “to break”). But the presence of נָפַץ (nafats, “to smash”) in the next line strongly favors the MT vocalization.

[2:9]  ²² tn The Hebrew term שֵׁבֶט (shevet) can refer to a “staff” or “rod,” but here it probably refers to the Davidic king’s royal scepter, symbolizing his sovereignty.

[2:9]  ²³ sn Like a potter’s jar. Before the Davidic king’s awesome power, the rebellious nations are like fragile pottery.

[21:8]  ²⁴ tn The king is now addressed. One could argue that the Lord is still being addressed, but v. 9 militates against this proposal, for there the Lord is mentioned in the third person and appears to be distinct from the addressee (unless, of course, one takes “Lord” in v. 9 as vocative; see the note on “them” in v. 9b). Verse 7 begins this transition to a new addressee by referring to both the king and the Lord in the third person (in vv. 1-6 the Lord is addressed and only the king referred to in the third person).

[21:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your hand finds.” The idiom pictures the king grabbing hold of his enemies and defeating them (see 1 Sam 23:17). The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 8-12 may be translated with the future tense, as long as the future is understood as generalizing.

[21:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “your right hand finds those who hate you.”

[21:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).

[21:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

[21:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).

[21:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.

[21:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “seed.”

[21:10]  ³² tn Heb “sons of man.”

[21:11]  ³³ tn Or “for.”

[21:11]  ³⁴ tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).

[21:11]  ³⁵ sn See Ps 10:2.

[21:11]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they lack ability.”

[21:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”

[21:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”

[110:5]  ³⁹ tn As pointed in the Hebrew text, this title refers to God (many medieval Hebrew mss read יְהוָה, yehveh, “Lord” here). The present translation assumes that the psalmist here addresses the Lord as he celebrates what the king is able to accomplish while positioned at God’s “right hand.” According to this view the king is the subject of the third person verb forms in vv. 5b-7. (2) Another option is to understand the king as the addressee (as in vv. 2-3). In this case “the Lord” is the subject of the third person verbs throughout vv. 5-7 and is depicted as a warrior in a very anthropomorphic manner. In this case the Lord is pictured as being at the psalmist’s right hand (just the opposite of v. 1). See Pss 16:8; 121:5. (3) A third option is to revocalize אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) as אֲדֹנִי (’adoniy, “my lord”; see v. 1). In this case one may translate, “My lord, at his [God’s] right hand, strikes down.” In this case the king is the subject of the third person verbs in vv. 5b-7.

[110:5]  ⁴⁰ tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 5-6 are understood here as descriptive-dramatic or as generalizing. Another option is to take them as rhetorical. In this case the psalmist describes anticipated events as if they had already taken place.

[110:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the day of his anger.”

[7:26]  ⁴² tn Aram “judgment will sit” (KJV similar).

[7:27]  ⁴³ tn If the “holy ones” are angels, then this probably refers to the angels as protectors of God’s people. If the “holy ones” are God’s people, then this is an appositional construction, “the people who are the holy ones.” See 8:24 for the corresponding Hebrew phrase and the note there.

[7:1]  ⁴⁴ sn The first year of Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 553 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 67 years old at the time of this vision.

[7:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Aram “saw.”

[7:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Aram “and visions of his head.” The Aramaic is difficult here. Some scholars add a verb thought to be missing (e.g., “the visions of his head [were alarming him]”), but there is no external evidence to support such a decision and the awkwardness of the text at this point may be original.

[7:1]  ⁴⁷ tn Aram “head of words.” The phrase is absent in Theodotion. Cf. NIV “the substance of his dream.”