Revelation 11:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 11:17
Saying, We give thee thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
properly · verb — present active participle, nominative plural masculine
give
εὐχαριστοῦμένeucharistoumen
G2168
to be grateful · verb — present active indicative, 1st person plural
thee
σοίsoí
G4671
to thee
thanks
εὐχαριστέωeucharistéō
G2168
to be grateful
Lord
κύριεkurie
G2962
supreme in authority · noun — vocative singular masculine, a title
God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — vocative singular masculine, a title
Almighty
παντοκράτωρ,pantokratōr
G3841
the all-ruling · noun — vocative singular masculine, a title
art
ὤνṓn
G5607
being
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
wast
ἦνēn
G2258
I (thou
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
come
ἐρχόμενος,erchomenos
G2064
to come or go (in a great variety of applications · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, nominative singular masculine
because
ὅτιhoti
G3754
demonstrative · conjunction
thee
εἴληφαςeilēphas
G2983
while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent · verb — second perfect active indicative, 2nd person singular
thy
σοῦsoû
G4675
of thee
great
μεγάληνmegalēn
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — accusative singular feminine
power
δύναμίνdunamin
G1411
force (literally or figuratively) · noun — accusative singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
reigned
ἐβασίλευσας.ebasileusas
G936
to rule (literally or figuratively) · verb — aorist active indicative, 2nd person singular
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
Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Revelation 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alle…
Psalms 21:13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.
Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from…
Revelation 4:8-9 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy,…
Isaiah 51:9-11 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Ra…
1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 11:14–end
We have here the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet, which is ushered in by the usual warning and demand of attention: The second woe is past, and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded. This had been suspended for some time, till the apostle had been made acquainted with some intervening occurrences of very great moment, and worthy of his notice and observation. But what he before expected he now heard - the seventh angel sounding. Here observe the effects and consequences of this trumpet, thus sounded.
I. Here were loud and joyful acclamations of the saints and angels in heaven. Observe, 1. The manner of their adorations: they rose from their seats, and…
thanks--for the answer to our prayers (Rev 6:10-11) in destroying them which destroy the earth (Rev 11:18), thereby preparing the way for setting up the kingdom of Thyself and Thy saints.
and art to come--omitted in A, B, C, Vulgate, Syriac, CYPRIAN, and ANDREAS. The consummation having actually come, they do not address Him as they did when it was still future, "Thou that art to come." Compare Rev 11:18, "is come." From the sounding of the seventh trumpet He is to His people JAH, the ever present Lord, WHO IS, more peculiarly than JEHOVAH "who is, was, and is to come."
taken to thee thy great power--"to Thee" is not in the Greek. Christ takes to Him the kingdom as His own of right.
Adam Clarke on Revelation 11:17
O Lord God Almighty, which art - This gives a proper view of God in his eternity; all times are here comprehended, the present, the past, and the future. This is the infinitude of God.
Hast taken to thee - Thou hast exercised that power which thou ever hast; and thou hast broken the power of thy enemies, and exalted thy Church.
John Gill on Revelation 11:17
Saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty,.... The person addressed is the Lord Jesus Christ, whose the kingdoms are become, and who now reigns in great power and authority; he is Lord of all, and truly and properly God, and the Almighty, as his works of creation, preservation, redemption, raising himself from the dead, &c. declare; and each of these titles exceedingly well suit him, when his visible kingdom on earth will be so greatly enlarged:
which art, and wast, and art to come: the everlasting, "I am", the unchangeable Jehovah: the phrase is expressive of the eternity and immutability; see Gill on Revelation 1:8; and it may be observed, whereas in this description of him it is s…
The Church Fathers
Who are, and who were, etc. You indeed have reigned from eternity, even with the wicked rebelling, but now their fury, judged by you, will be crushed. For the Lord reigns; let the peoples be angry (Psalm XCVIII).
And adored God, saying: We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who wast, and who art. By the fact that they do not say "who art to come," it is made clear that all this will be said or done at the last judgment. As for what follows, because thou hast received thy great power, and the nations were angry, it refers to his first coming. He received in his humanity the great power he has always had by his divinity. On the other hand, what is said next, because thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, refers to his second coming. Yet since the Lord says, Love your enemies, [Matt. 5:44 and Luke 6:27/35] how can it be said that these people are giving thanks for the coming of his wrath against the reprobates? Therefore they are not rejoicing at the destruction of the wicked, but at their own resurrection and glorification, which they know cannot possibly be fulfilled unless the damnation of the wicked comes first. It is according to this interpretation that the souls of the slain under the altar of God are said to cry, How long, O Lord, etc.; [Rev. 6:10] for they are not asking for revenge, but to be themselves rewarded after revenge has been taken on the wicked. Hence the Psalmist: The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge. [Ps. 57:11] The Judge's wrath does not mean a perturbation of the mind, but its straightness. So one shall see him such as one's own conscience is like. That thou shouldest judge them, and render reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great. When the apostle says that we are saved by grace, [Eph. 2:8] how can the Lord be said here to render reward? One should know then that when the Lord renders reward to his servants, it is his own gifts that he rewards in them, for we could not have any work worthy of reward if we had not received from him the ability to do works. Note also that by the name of prophets are represented the apostles. Meanwhile, let no one despair on account of their imperfection, if they nonetheless strive to do perfect things but do not succeed; because even the little ones shall obtain that reward; whence blessed Job: The small and great are there. [Job 3:19] And shouldest banish them who have corrupted the earth. They are said to be banished rather than killed so as to show the everlasting exile of damnation, their eternal indigence. To corrupt the…
Dictionary and topics
Power Of God, The · The heavenly host magnify — The heavenly host magnify
Thankfulness · The heavenly host engage in — The heavenly host engage in
Thanksgiving · The heavenly host engaged in — The heavenly host engaged 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).
The thanksgiving prayer describes God as the one who is and who always was; the description “is still to come” (see 1:4, 8) no longer applies, because in this scene eternity has come and God has begun to reign.