Revelation 14:20 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 14:20
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
to trample (literally or figuratively) · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
without
ἔξωéxō
G1854
out(-side
city
πόλεως,poleōs
G4172
a town (properly · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
blood
αἷμαhaima
G129
blood · noun — nominative singular neuter
came
ἐξῆλθενexēlthen
G1831
to issue (literally or figuratively) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
of
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
winepress
ληνοῦlēnou
G3025
a trough · noun — genitive singular feminine
unto
ἄχριachri
G891
(of time) until or (of place) up to · preposition
horse
ἵππωνippōn
G2462
a horse · noun — genitive plural masculine
bridles
χαλινῶνchalinōn
G5469
a curb or head-stall (as curbing the spirit) · noun — genitive plural masculine
of
ἀπὸapo
G575
"off · preposition
thousand
χιλίωνchiliōn
G5507
a thousand · adjective — genitive plural masculine
hundred
ἑξακοσίων.¶hexakosiōn
G1812
six hundred · adjective — genitive plural masculine
furlongs
σταδίωνstadiōn
G4712
a stade or certain measure of distance · noun — genitive plural 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
Lamentations 1:15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord…
Hebrews 13:11-12 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
Isaiah 63:1-3 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his…
Revelation 19:14-21 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Isaiah 66:24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shal…
Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucif…
Isaiah 34:5-7 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
Ezekiel 39:17-21 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and co…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 14:13–end
Here we have the vision of the harvest and vintage, introduced with a solemn preface. Observe,
I. The preface, Rev 14:13. Here note, 1. Whence this prophecy about the harvest came: it came down from heaven, and not from men, and therefore it is of certain truth and great authority. 2. How it was to be preserved and published - by writing; it was to be a matter of record, that the people of God might have recourse to it for their support and comfort upon all occasions. 3. What it principally intended, and that is, to show the blessedness of all the faithful saints and servants of God, both in death and after death: Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth, etc. Here observe,…
without the city--Jerusalem. The scene of the blood-shedding of Christ and His people shall be also the scene of God's vengeance on the Antichristian foe. Compare the "horsemen," Rev 9:16-17.
blood--answering to the red wine. The slaughter of the apostates is what is here spoken of, not their eternal punishment.
even unto the horse bridles--of the avenging "armies of heaven."
by the space of a thousand . . . six hundred furlongs--literally, "a thousand six hundred furlongs off" [W. KELLY]. Sixteen hundred is a square number; four by four by one hundred. The four quarters, north, south, east, and west, of the Holy Land, or else of the world (the completeness and universality of the worl…
Even unto the horse bridles - A hyperbolical expression, to denote a great effusion of blood. The Jews said, "When Hadrian besieged the city called Bitter, he slew so many that the horses waded in blood up to their mouths." The same kind of hyperbole with that above. See Wetstein on this verse.
The space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs - It is said that the state of the Church, or St. Peter's patrimony, extends from Rome to the Po, two hundred Italian miles, which make exactly one thousand six hundred furlongs! If this be really so, the coincidence is certainly surprising, and worthy of deep regard.
On these two last verses pious Quesnel thus speaks: "As the favorable sickle of Jesus…
The Church Fathers
And blood came out of the winepress, etc. Vengeance came out even to the rulers of the peoples. For vengeance for the blood of the saints poured out has reached even to the devil and his angels in the final struggle. As it is written: In blood you sinned, and blood will pursue you. It was said above concerning the horses:
However, it is possible to understand this another way. For since those who transgressed by giving themselves over to pleasure have become horses full of lust, they will be overtaken by tortures up to their bridles, for they knew no bridle in their pleasures. By the "1, stadia" we learn of the great chasm that separates the righteous from the sinners. For these were perfect in evil and did that which is abominable, and therefore ten times one hundred signifies the complete magnitude of their evil, while the six hundred suggests their eager engagement in sin through the misuse of the creation, which was created in six days, and also in the six hundredth year of Noah all land was inundated by water.
For a distance of sixteen hundred stadia. That is, through all four parts of the world. For fourfoldness is compounded four times, as in the four-faced quadriform and wheels. Four times four hundred is sixteen hundred. Tyconius interprets the reaper and the grape gatherer as the Church, shining forth after the flames of persecutions, holding the power to bind and to loose. The angel from the temple or altar giving the command of the Lord, not with a clear voice, but by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit, who works in His body, teaching that it is now time for the wicked to be anathematized, having power over fire, namely that which comes from the mouth of the witnesses, and consumes their enemies. Thus far concerning the conflict of the Church and the ripe end of the struggle for both.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Furlong — A stadium, a Greek measure of distance equal to 606 feet and 9 inches (Luke 24:13; John 6:19; 11:18; Rev. 14:20; 21:16).
Weights And Measures — A. WEIGHTS.—The general principle of the present inquiry is to give the evidence of the monuments the preference on all doubtful points. All ancient Greek systems of weight were derived, either…
Wine-press — Consisted of two vats or receptacles, (1) a trough (Heb. gath, Gr. lenos) into which the grapes were thrown and where they were trodden upon and bruised (Isa. 16:10; Lam. 1:15; Joel 3:13); and (2) a…
Bridle · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Grape · 10:1; — 10:1;
Wine Press · .Of the — .Of the
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).
And the winepress was trodden without the city,.... The beloved city, the new Jerusalem, into which none of the wicked will enter, and without which are dogs, &c. Revelation 20:9. The allusion may be, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, to the olive presses, which were without the city of Jerusalem, from whence Gethsemane had its name, whither our Lord went, and where his sorrows began the night he was betrayed: hell is sometimes expressed by outer darkness, and said to be far off from heaven, and between the one and the other a great gulf is fixed, the distance is considerable; hence men are said to go forth to behold the miseries of the wicked; see Matthew 22:13.
and blood came out of the winepress;…
The ripe . . . grapes (see Amos 8:2) that are trampled in the winepress emphasize God’s power to judge (see Rev 19:15; Joel 3:13). • Winepresses were built outside cities and towns; here, the city is Jerusalem. The bloody river of death stretched about 180 miles. God’s enemies stand no chance when the Son of Man comes in judgment. The carnage here is closely linked with the final battle in Rev 19:17-21; God is just and fair in giving people exactly what they deserve (see 16:5-7).
