used only in certain past tenses · verb — second aorist active indicative, 1st person singular
stand
ἑστῶταhestōta
G2476
to stand (transitively or intransitively) · verb — perfect active participle, accusative singular masculine
upon
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
sea
θαλάσσηςthalassēs
G2281
the sea (genitive case or specially) · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
upon
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
earth
γῆς,gēs
G1093
soil · noun — genitive singular feminine
up
ἦρενēren
G142
to lift up · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
hand
χεῖραcheira
G5495
the hand (literally or figuratively (power) · noun — accusative singular feminine
to
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
heaven
οὐρανὸνouranon
G3772
the sky · noun — accusative singular masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Daniel 12:7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven,…
Deuteronomy 32:40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
Acts 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vani…
Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were cre…
Revelation 10:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
Revelation 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth…
Revelation 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, I…
Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 10:1-7
Here we have an account of another vision the apostle was favoured with, between the sounding of the sixth trumpet and that of the seventh. And we observe,
I. The person who was principally concerned in communicating this discovery to John - an angel from heaven, another mighty angel, who is so set forth as would induce one to think it could be no other than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 1. He was clothed with a cloud: he veils his glory, which is too great for mortality to behold; and he throws a veil upon his dispensations. Clouds and darkness are round about him. 2. A rainbow was upon his head; he is always mindful of his covenant, and, when his conduct is most mysterious, yet it is…
lifted up his hand--So A and Vulgate read. But B, C, Aleph, Syriac, and Coptic, ". . . his right hand." It was customary to lift up the hand towards heaven, appealing to the God of truth, in taking a solemn oath. There is in this part of the vision an allusion to Dan 12:1-13. Compare Rev 10:4, with Dan 12:4, Dan 12:9; and Rev 10:5-6, end, with Dan 12:7. But there the angel clothed in linen, and standing upon the waters, sware "a time, times, and a half" were to interpose before the consummation; here, on the contrary, the angel standing with his left foot on the earth, and his right upon the sea, swears there shall be time no longer. There he lifted up both hands to heaven; here he has the l…
Lifted up his hand to heaven - As one making an appeal to the supreme Being.
John Gill on Revelation 10:5
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth,.... His right foot being on the one, and his left foot upon the other, as described in Revelation 10:2;
lifted up his hand to heaven; the Oriental versions read, "his right hand"; and so some copies, and the Complutensian edition: the man clothed in linen, Daniel 12:6, who is the same with the angel here, held up both his hands; the lifting up of the hand was a gesture used in swearing: see Genesis 14:22; so the Jews say (o), "the right hand", or by the right hand, , "this is an oath", according to Daniel 12:7; or whether the right hand or the left, is an oath, according to Isaiah 62:8.
(o) T. Bab. Nazir, fol. 3. 2. Yalkut Si…
The Church Fathers
And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore, etc. The angel swears by the one who lives forever, as Christ, coming in the name of the Father, confirms his words with his unchangeable truth: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Matthew XXIV).
God swears by himself, since there is none greater than he. But the angels, being creatures, swear by the Creator, for due to our untrustworthiness, they are the guarantors of what is said by them. They swear either that in the coming age there will no longer be time which is measured by the sun, since eternal life is transcendent to temporal measure, or they swear that there is not much time after the six voices of the angel before the prophecies are fulfilled.
And the angel, whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and he swore by him that liveth for ever and ever. When the Lord forbids swearing, what does it mean that he himself swears, if not that men are often mistaken in swearing, whereas he, who is the truth, is never mistaken? So, the angel lifting up his hand to heaven was our Redeemer carrying his humanity up to the Father's seat by his own power. His swearing by him that lives for ever and ever means that he shows that he, who is the Father's Word, and his flesh, which indicates the whole man, who consists of flesh and soul, are one person of God and the true God of man; or if it is not this, then certainly he swears by the Father because he attributes him everything. In what is said after that, who created heaven, and the things which are therein; and the earth, and the things which are in it; and the sea, and the things which are therein, he refutes the error of the heretics who are not afraid to claim that some things were made by the good prince and others by the prince of darkness. Now let us hear what he swore: That time shall be no longer. However, if time shall be no longer when holy preaching has come to an end, how can the Psalmist say, Their time shall be forever? [Ps. 80:16] One should know then that for the just, whom the eternity of immortality will receive, no time of changeableness will come after that; whereas the unjust, whom an eternal decline will take possession of, will be as if they were confronted with times of mutability: for, since time declines moment by moment, it is fitting for the decline of the wicked to be called by the name of time. Therefore the Psalmist affirms concerning the unjust what the Lord denies concerning the just.
Dictionary and topics
Hands, The · Were lifted up: In taking an oath — Were lifted up: In taking an oath
Oaths · Often accompanied by raising up the hand — Often accompanied by raising up the hand
Sea · .In — .In
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
While raising one’s right hand is common in taking an oath today, it is rare in biblical literature (cp. Gen 14:22; 24:9; Dan 12:7). • When making an oath, Jews were very careful not to swear lightly by God’s name (see Exod 20:7). Jesus also rebuked insincere oath-taking (see Matt 5:33-37; 23:16-22). When God swore an oath, he did so in his own name as the highest possible point of reference (see Gen 22:16; Ps 89:35-36; Jer 22:5; Heb 6:13-18).
