Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Said to the mountains and rocks - Expressions which denote the strongest perturbation and alarm. They preferred any kind of death to that which they apprehended from this most awful revolution.

From the face of him that sitteth on the throne - They now saw that all these terrible judgments came from the Almighty; and that Christ, the author of Christianity, was now judging, condemning, and destroying them for their cruel persecutions of his followers.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us,.... They chose death rather than life. Dioclesian being invited by Constantine to a marriage feast, excused himself by reason of his old age; but receiving threatening letters, the historian^F20Aurel. Victor. Epitome. says, in which he was charged with having favoured Maxentius, and with favouring Maximinus, he poisoned himself; and others of the emperors are said to lay violent hands upon themselves:

and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; thus they owned the proper deity, and almighty power of God, and Christ, which they dreaded; so Maximinus being afflicted with a most horrible disease, of which he died, asked pardon of the God of the Christians, and owned that he suffered justly, for his reproaches of Christ^F21Euseb. Hist. l. 9. c. 10. & de Vita Constantin. l. 1. c. 59. Licinius, who sometimes pretended to be a Christian, and joined with Constantine, but afterwards revolted and fought against him, being conquered and taken, was put to death; at which time he, and they that suffered death with him, confessed that the God of Constantine was the only true God^F23Euseb. de Vita Constantin. l. 2. c. 18. . This passage shows, that Christ, God's firstborn, is higher than the kings of the earth; yea, that he is equal with him that sits upon the throne, with God his Father, since his wrath is equally dreaded as his; and that, though he is a Lamb, mild, meek, and gentle, yet there is wrath, fury, and indignation in him, against his enemies, which is very dreadful and intolerable; see Psalm 2:12.

Geneva Study Bible

And said to the mountains and rocks, ¹¹ Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

(11) These are words of those who despair of escape: of the cause of this despair there are two arguments, the presence of God and the Lamb provoked to wrath against the world, in this verse: and the awareness of their own weakness, feeling that they are not able to survive the day of the wrath of God (Revelation 6:17) as it is said in (Isaiah 14:27).

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

from the face — (Psalm 34:16). On the whole verse, compare Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30.

Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament

They say (λεγουσιν — legousin). Vivid dramatic present active indicative, as is natural here.

Fall on us (Πεσατε επ ημας — Pesate eph' hēmās). Second aorist (first aorist ending) imperative of πιπτω — piptō tense of urgency, do it now.

And hide us (και κρυπσατε ημας — kai krupsate hēmās). Same tense of urgency again from κρυπτω — kruptō (verb in Revelation 6:15). Both imperatives come in inverted order from Hosea 10:8 with καλυπσατε — kalupsate (cover) in place of κρυπσατε — krupsate (hide), quoted by Jesus on the way to the Cross (Luke 23:30) in the order here, but with καλυπσατε — kalupsate not κρυπσατε — krupsate the face of him that (απο προσωπου του — apo prosōpou tou etc.). “What sinners dread most is not death, but the revealed Presence of God” (Swete). Cf. Genesis 3:8.

And from the wrath of the Lamb (και απο της οργης του αρνιου — kai apo tēs orgēs tou arniou). Repetition of “the grave irony” (Swete) of Revelation 5:5. The Lamb is the Lion again in the terribleness of his wrath. Recall the mourning in Revelation 1:7. See Matthew 25:41. where Jesus pronounces the woes on the wicked.

Vincent's Word Studies

Said ( λέγουσιν )

Lit., say. So Rev.

Fall on us

Compare Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30.

Wrath ( ὀργῆς )

Denoting a deep-seated wrath. See on John 3:36.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

To the mountains and the rocks — Which were tottering already, verse12. Revelation 6:12 Hide us from the face of him - Which "is against the ungodly," Psalm 34:16.

James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

THE WRATH OF THE LAMB

‘The wrath of the Lamb.’

Revelation 6:16

We should not allow the sympathy, the gentleness, the compassion, the loving humanity of Jesus, as we find Him portrayed in the Gospels, to blind us to the fact that there is such a thing, after all, as the ‘wrath of the Lamb.’ ‘The wrath of the Lamb’! The words suggest a somewhat painful line of thought.

God is incapable of change. And such as God was in the times of the older dispensation, such is He now to us who live in the clearer light and fuller privileges of the dispensation of the Spirit.

I. It was unavoidable that the sterner side of the Divine character should be first turned to the human race. Men had to be educated in the knowledge of sin before they could come to understand their true position; before they could appreciate their need of God’s help, as well as the necessity of an entire and perfect submission to God’s will.

II. With regard to the present dispensation—that of Christianity—the process may be said to be reversed. We have the love first and the severity afterwards; or, as perhaps I ought to put it, we have the evidence that the Divine nature—which is full of compassion and tender mercy, which continually invites, persuades, even beseeches, the sinner to approach it in confidence and trust—has yet in it a capability of righteous indignation, in fact of wrath, most formidable to those who persist in refusing compliance with its claims and acceptance of its invitations.

III. There is something in the nature of man himself which corresponds with this twofold aspect of the character of God, and enables us to understand it. I will suppose you to have heard of some frightful crime. Now what is your feeling? It is one of fierce, fiery indignation, which demands the immediate and condign punishment of the offender. There is that in you which will not be quieted—which will not be satisfied—until the criminal has met with his deserts.

—Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

Ver. 16. And said to the mountains] Which yet was but a poor shelter; for mountains melted and rocks rent at his presence. So that if wicked men cry to the hills, Help us, they will give an echo, Help us. For God’s wrath is upon the creature for man’s sin.

Sermon Bible Commentary

Revelation 6:16

The Consequences of Sin.

I. The wages of sin are paid with a fearful compound interest, and the real terror of evil is that it does not die with its immediate author. It lives with a strange, vicarious life, ramifying, developing, multiplying, hideously replenishing the earth, till the lust of one ancestor, and the intemperance of another, and the pride, and the jealousy, and the selfishness of others, have intertwined and interwoven and invested their posterity with a thousand incapacities, and hindrances, and weaknesses, and tendencies to evil; and the world has become one great discord of pain, and sorrow, and misunderstanding, and intellectual failure, and moral palsy, and spiritual death.

II. Throughout the ages man has been incessantly impelled to ask, What is there in moral evil more than meets the eye? What will sin turn out to be when we see it in the light of the real world? And if we confine ourselves to observation of history, quite apart from revelation, Shakespeare's words are literally true,

"The weariest and most loathèd worldly life

That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death."

III. The judgment of man upon himself has been that the consequences of sin cannot but last beyond the grave. If we will from time to time think upon these facts—the fact of the present consequences of moral evil and the fact of the gloomy forebodings with which the sight of these consequences time out of mind has filled the heart of man—we shall be in less danger of the popular modern fallacy which insults alike both the human dignity and the Divine by promising to sin apart from repentance an amiable obliteration, forgetting that hell, after all, may be the last prerogative of the human will.

J. R. Illingworth, Sermons, p. 48.

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I. Consider the ideas presented to us and apprehended by faith when Jesus Christ is revealed under the name of the Lamb. (1) One of these, doubtless, is the idea of meekness. It was not as a stern and just Judge that He came to save the world, or as a Monarch in the pride of state, or a Conqueror flushed with victory. He was humble and gentle, of poor parents, and from a despised town, born in a stable and cradled in a manger. He sits on the throne of heaven and earth, but still it is the throne of the Lamb. (2) Another idea comprised in this appellation is that of perfect purity and innocence. Not only was every animal used in the typical services of the Temple to be free from imperfection, but Christ was expressly compared to a lamb without blemish and without spot, and most exactly was the type fulfilled. (3) The leading idea of the title "the Lamb" is the atonement Christ made for sin by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross.

II. Consider the awful words of our text: "The wrath of the Lamb." The meek and holy Being, who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, has His wrath; and His wrath is the more terrible because He is meek and lowly and the propitiation for all sins. Mercy neglected is guilt incurred, and in proportion to the love displayed in man's salvation is the ingratitude of evil, and must be the condemnation of those who reject Him. (1) "Behold the Lamb of God." And who is He? He is a Man, but no mere man, for no man ever spake or lived as this Man. An angel? "He took not on Him the nature of angels." God was manifest in the flesh, and God and man, one Christ, bore our sins and atoned for them on the cross; and can we think that such love, beneath the conception of which the mind staggers, half incredulous of mercy so infinite—can we ever think that it can be neglected without guilt, and may be for ever set at nought with impunity? (2) Again, consider the price paid for our redemption, the exceeding bitterness of the cup which He drained that our souls might be healed. Christ has no recompense except that you should believe and be saved, and in every repenting and returning sinner He sees of the travail of His soul, the reward of all His sufferings, and is satisfied. And if you will not, if all has been suffered for you in vain, surely your ingratitude, cold-heartedness, neglect, must add tenfold terror to the wrath of the Lamb. (3) Remember the plainness of the warnings that are used and the mercy of His invitations. Past mercy will enhance future judgment; the love of Christ will shine at the last day upon the open books; and in its bright beam will stand out, in dark, plain characters, the guilt, the folly, the ingratitude, of those for whom Christ died, and who would not live for Christ.

J. Jackson, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 780.

References: Revelation 6:17.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 153. Revelation 7:1-3.—Ibid., 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 134.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us: see Hosea 10:8 Luke 23:30. They shall be in a great consternation, and be ready to take any course for security.

From the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; from the wrath of God, and of Jesus Christ.

Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture

от гнева Агнца В первый раз население планеты осознает, где источник всех его бед (см. пояснение к 4:6). Невероятно, но до тех пор они будут вести свой обычный образ жизни (Мф. 24:37-39).

Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament

Full on us, and hide us; representing their great consternation when Christ should appear, in answer to the prayers of the martyrs, to deliver his people and take vengeance on their foes. Compare Hosea 10:8. When Christ comes to take vengeance on his foes, they can neither elude nor withstand him. No dens nor caverns, rocks nor mountains, can hide them; nor can any created power screen them from the indignation of him who sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

said = they say.

Fall, &c. See Hosea 10:8, and compare Luke 23:30.

face. Greek. prosopon. Same word "presence" in 2 Thessalonians 1:9.

wrath. Greek. orge. Only once in N.T. is "wrath" attributed to the Lord; see Mark 3:5. Elsewhere it pertains to God. "Wrath of the Lamb"! Divine love spurned and rejected turning to judicial "wrath" and destruction.

Lamb. In Revelation 5:5 the Lamb-Lion; here, the Lion-Lamb.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

From the face - (Psalms 34:16 : cf. Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30.)

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

Fall

10:6; Jeremiah 8:3; Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30

the face

4:2,5,9; 20:11

and from

10; 19:15; Psalms 2:9-12; 14:5; 21:8-12; 110:5,6; Zechariah 1:14,15; Matthew 26:64; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

Reciprocal: Exodus 11:6 - General;  Joshua 2:11 - did there remain;  Joshua 2:24 - all the inhabitants;  Judges 8:12 - took;  2 Kings 7:6 - the Lord;  2 Chronicles 32:21 - the leaders;  Esther 1:12 - was the king;  Job 13:20 - hide myself;  Job 18:11 - Terrors;  Job 24:17 - in the terrors;  Job 25:2 - Dominion;  Job 34:22 - no;  Psalm 2:12 - when;  Psalm 18:45 - afraid;  Psalm 21:9 - in his;  Psalm 45:4 - right;  Psalm 47:2 - is terrible;  Psalm 50:22 - I tear;  Psalm 68:2 - as wax;  Psalm 68:35 - terrible;  Psalm 76:7 - who;  Psalm 88:7 - Thy wrath;  Isaiah 2:10 - Enter;  Isaiah 5:15 - the mean;  Isaiah 6:1 - sitting;  Isaiah 10:3 - And what;  Isaiah 22:5 - crying;  Jeremiah 11:11 - which;  Ezekiel 25:14 - and they shall know;  Zechariah 14:5 - the Lord;  Matthew 3:7 - flee;  Mark 3:5 - with anger;  John 1:29 - Behold;  John 3:36 - but;  Romans 4:15 - Because;  Romans 9:22 - willing;  2 Thessalonians 1:8 - taking;  Hebrews 2:3 - How;  Revelation 5:6 - a Lamb;  Revelation 5:13 - and unto;  Revelation 9:6 - shall men

E.M. Zerr's Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

In their state of fear they would prefer being put out of the conflict, even if the mountains would tumble down upon them. Hide us from the face of the Lamb. These men who had held sway for so long were made to realize that the change was brought about by the influence of the religion their emperor had espoused.

Hanserd Knollys' Commentary on Revelation

Revelation 6:16

Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

These idolatrous potentate kings, priests, and captains, in the day of God vengeance (his temple vengeance) seek for hiding places, but find none. They had rather the rocks and mountains should have fallen on them and destroyed them, than to be brought before the judgment of seat of God and Jesus Christ, whose name they have blasphemed, whole churches, ministers, and members, they had persecuted, imprisoned, martyred and murdered, by their edicts, decrees, laws, and soldiers, and by the Judges, juries, and the false witnesses. { Amos 9:1-3}

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

16.Fall on us—Begging the boon of death to escape a doom worse than death. Says Stuart: “In like manner Pliny represents some fugitives from the fiery shower of Vesuvius as praying for death that they might escape the igneous deluge of the mountain: Erant qui metu morris mortem precaventur—some, through fear of death, begged for death.” (Epis. 6:20.) The wish expressed in the text may be further illustrated by a reference to the very common cases of suicide in prisons, when persons are under sentence of death, or expect it with certainty. They thus escape a more horrible death, and, in their apprehension, a more disgraceful one, by an exit which is less appalling. Note on Revelation 9:6.

Sitteth on the throne—Not the apocalyptic symbol throne of Revelation 4:1, but the judgment throne of Revelation 20:11.

Wrath of the Lamb—The wrath of him on the throne is the wrath of rectoral justice; the wrath of the Lamb is the still more terrible wrath of abused grace and mercy. No vengeance so awful as divine love transformed to divine wrath.