Revelation 16:6

16:6 Punishment of God’s enemies is a just reward because they killed God’s holy people and prophets. Because they have shed . . . blood, they must drink . . . blood. The principle of lex talionis (the law of retribution), the basis of Roman and Jewish jurisprudence, means that God is completely just in judging and rewarding people on the basis of what they have done (see 2:23; 11:18; 14:13; 18:6; 20:12, 13; 22:12).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rev 16:6. Ἄξιοι εἰσὶ, are worthy) An abrupt sentence, with great force. So ch. Rev 14:5, ἄμωμοι εἰσίν. Psa 99:5, קדוש הוא.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rev 16:6 . The retribution once threatened on Jerusalem and the Jews (Mat 23:35 ) is now transferred apparently to Rome, the later antagonist of the faith ( cf. on Rev 18:24 ). Once the Romans made Christian blood run like water. Now, by the irony of providence, they shall find nothing but blood to drink. This moral vengeance ( cf. Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables ), with its grim equivalence between sin and sin’s punishment (Rev 11:18 , Rev 13:10 , Rev 18:7 ; cf. 2Ti 2:12 , etc.) is not pushed, however, into the grotesque and elaborately Dantesque details, e.g. , of the Apocalypse of Peter. ἐξέχεαν (the verb runs all through this chapter, and this chapter only), cf. Dittenberger’s Sylloge Inscript. Graec. 816 7 (cent. A.D.) ἐγχέαντας τὸ ἀναίτιον αἷμα ἀδίκως . ἁγ . κ . πρ ., all prophets are ἅγιοι , but all ἅγιοι are not prophets.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(Rev 11:18, end; Gen 9:6; Isa 49:26.) An anticipation of Rev 18:20, Rev 18:24; compare Rev 13:15.

For--A, B, C, and ANDREAS omit.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Thou hast given them blood to drink] They thirsted after blood and massacred the saints of God; and now they have got blood to drink! It is said that when Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, had vanquished Cyrus, she cut off his head and threw it into a vessel of blood, saying these words: Satia te sanguine, quem sitisti, cujusque insatiabilis semper fuisti; "Satisfy thyself with blood, for which thou hast thirsted, and for which thy desire has been insatiable." See Justin. Hist., lib. i. c. 8. This figure of speech is called sarcasm in rhetoric.

"Sarcasmus with this biting taunt doth kill:

Cyrus, thy thirst was blood; now drink thy fill."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(6) For they have shed . . .—Better, Because they shed (not, “have shed,” but did shed, or pour out), and blood didst Thou give them; they are worthy. “For” is to be omitted; the sentence has a startling force without it. They—i.e., those enemies of all righteousness—are worthy; they receive the due reward of their deeds.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. of saints and prophets] See Rev_11:18, Rev_18:20.

for they are worthy] Omit “for:” but we may compare Rev_3:4, where a very different judgement is grounded on the same weighty words.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And I heard another out of the altar say,.... That is, another angel that came out of the altar; see Rev 14:18 and who represents the souls under the altar, whose blood had been shed by the above persons; compare with this Rev 6:9 though, there, such whose blood had been shed by Rome Pagan are described; the Ethiopic version calls this angel as before, "the angel of the fountains of water"; and the Alexandrian copy, and Syriac and Arabic versions, read, "I heard the altar saying": as follows,

even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments; the same as in Rev 15:3. This angel joins the other, and approves and confirms what he says; applauding the judgements of Christ upon the worshippers of the beast, from the verity of them, being what were threatened, and from the justice of them, being what they deserved.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

Ver. 6. For they have shed] As Minerius that monster, the cruel Duke of Alva, bloody Bonner, the Guises, and other of the pope’s champions. Duke d’Alva, boasted of it, that he had put 36,000 Protestants to death; but they were rescued by the goodness of God and by the prowess of Queen Elizabeth, and now they are got from under the altar, as Rev 16:7. (Acts and Mon.; Camden.) {a}

Thou hast given them blood to drink] As Tomyris dealt by Cyrus, the Parthians by Crassus, the Romans by those Jews that cried out, "His blood be upon us," &c., as our laws do by the priests and Jesuits, and those that receive them, proceeding against such as traitors to the state. The putting out of the French king’s eyes, who promised before with his eyes to see one of God’s true servants burned; the death of Charles IX of France, author of the Parisian massacre, by exceeding bleeding at sundry parts of his body; who seeth not to be the just hand of God upon them? This Charles beholding the bloody bodies of the butchered Protestants, in that execrable massacre, and feeding his eye upon that woeful spectacle, breathed out this bloody speech, Quam bonus est odor hostis mortui! How sweet is the smell of a slain enemy! and shortly after breathed out his accursed soul, Inter horribilium blasphemiarum diras, saith a historian, tantam sanguinis vim proieciens, &c., after that Beza had forewarned him (but in vain) by that verse,

" Tu veto Herodes sanguinolente time."

So Julian, Attila, Felix of Wurtemburg, Henry III of France, stabbed in the same chamber wherein he, then being Duke of Anjou, had contrived the French massacre. So let thine enemies perish, O Lord.

" Talia quisque luat, qualia quisque facit!"

"Let everyone be paid according to his deeds."

{a} See the Mirror or Looking Glass both for Saints and Sinners, set forth by my most loving and highly honoured friend, Mr Sam. Clarke, pastor and preacher of the word at Bennett Fink, London; unto whom not only I give thanks for his help in this publication, but also all the Churches that shall get good thereby.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For they have shed the blood of saints - The nations here referred to. They have been engaged in scenes of bloody persecution, and this is a just recompense.

And prophets - Teachers of religion; ministers of truth. It is not necessary to understand the word “prophets” here in its technical sense, as denoting those who are raised up by God and sent forth as inspired men, but it may be understood in its more common signification in the New Testament as denoting teachers of religion in general. See the Rom 12:6 note; 1Co 14:1 note.

And thou hast given them blood to drink - To wit, by turning the streams and fountains into blood, Rev 16:4. Blood had been poured out in such abundance that it seemed to mingle with the very water that they drank. This was a recompense for their having, in those very regions, poured out so much blood in persecuting the saints and prophets - the pious private members of the church, and the public teachers of religion.

For they are worthy - That is, they deserve this; or this is a just recompense for their sins. It is not intended that those who would thus suffer had been individually guilty of this, or that this was properly a punishment on them; but it is meant that in those countries there had been bloody persecutions, and that this was a fit recompense for what had there occurred.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Because of their persecutions of, and cruelty towards, God’s faithful ministers and people, which rendered the spilling of their blood but a condign punishment suited to their sin.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. For they—The Babylonian men of Rev_16:2.

Are worthy—Deserving this recompense in kind. Rev_18:6.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. This supplies the key to the interpretation of the previous visions. The ungodly have shed the blood of saints, therefore God deals out death to them. This is the meaning signified by the "blood" of the previous verses. (cf. the doom of Babylon, described in Revelation 17, especially ver. 6.; and Rev_18:6, Rev_18:24. Cf. the words, "they are worthy," with Rev_3:4) It is correct to consider that this prophecy received its first fulfilment in the violent deaths of so many of those who were the earliest Christian persecutors. On this subject see Lactantius, "De Morte Persecutorum.

HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY. Ver. 6. Be done by as you did.

"They have shed the blood... thou hast given them blood to drink." Grateful, indeed, ought men to be not alone for the golden rule which commands us to do unto others as we would be done by, but also for the converse of that rule, the eternal law that as we have done so shall we be done by. It is the lex talionis the law that ordains "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;" that "with what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you." And here in the text we have a vivid and awful illustration of it. And there have been a vast number more. They, everywhere and always, who have shed the blood of God"s servants, have had given to them, sooner or Later, "blood to drink." Their turn has come, and it has been the more terrible because of what they have done to bring it upon themselves.

I CONSIDER SOME ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS LAW. Egypt. The memory of how she shed the blood of God"s servants, and how blood was given her to drink, not merely in symbol by the water of her river being turned into blood, so that her people loathed to drink of it, but actually by the destruction that came upon her the memory of all this is evidently fresh in the writer"s mind. The atmosphere of Egypt, the bondage, and the Exodus, is all around this record of the seven vials. Israel under Ahab and other idolatrous kings. He and they shed the blood of God"s prophets. But sure revenges came. At Carmel; in Assyria, where Israel was carried away captive, and where as a nation she perished. Assyria . Cf. the Book of Jonah for its sins and its predicted doom. Fate of Sennacherib. Destruction of Nineveh about B.C. 606, when Sardanapalus the king, in despair, burnt himself, with his concubines, eunuchs, and treasures. Persia. Cf. the Book of Esther, and the king"s edict for the destruction of the Jews, and how averted and avenged. Greece. Cf. the Books of Maccabees, as to persecutions under Antiochus Epiphanes; his miserable death. Jerusalem. Cf. our Lord"s words, "It cannot be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem," etc. (Luk_13:33, Luk_13:34) Her siege and fall. Rome, both pagan and papal (cf. Gibbon, for fall of pagan Rome; Alison, for calamities that came on Rome and Italy during the wars of the Revolution). France. Her persecutions of the Huguenots led on to the horrors of her revolution.

Spain, once the greatest of European powers, became infamous for her bigotry and cruelties on all outside the Romish Church; she was the home of the Inquisition, and the auto-da-fe. But the persecutor"s doom came upon her. Her glory has departed. The Stuart dynasty in England, who harried and drove tens of thousands of godly men out of the Church and out of the land; and then their turn came, and their race and name passed away in ignominy. And had England"s loss of her American colonies nothing to do with her maintenance of the accursed slave trade? And did not America"s civil war spring from that same bad cause? Such are some fulfilments of this law, some more, some less, evident. Doubtless Jerusalem, at the hour when St. John wrote in the very throes of her mortal agony, when blood was indeed given her to drink; and Rome, racked with civil war and the fierce factions fomented by this chieftain and that, and for whom yet more fearful fate waited these were uppermost in St. John"s mind. But the law lives yet, and lived before St. John"s day; not one jot or one tittle of it has failed or can ever fail. And the Bible and the facts of life supply illustrations not a few of the fulfilment of this law in individuals as well as nations. And where the eye cannot trace the fulfilment, it is not to be thought that the law has failed. In his moral life that which is within and unseen the law can lay hold on the transgressor, and does so. Every man"s sin finds him out, even if he be not found out.

II ITS MODE OF ACTION. It is, like as most of God"s laws are, self acting. There is no need for God to interfere to see that the law is vindicated. Power, perverted to persecution and oppression, and pampered by such means, becomes hideous and hateful to mankind, who after a while will turn upon the tyrant and hurl him from the place of power which he has prostituted to such vile uses. And so because he or they have "shed blood," blood is given, etc. Man may as well think to put in motion any given cause and to hinder the due effect from following, as to hinder the fulfilment of the law we are considering. Sow the seed, and its harvest will follow, not some other; there will be no need of miracle to secure this. And the seed of blood shed will infallibly secure a like harvest. Men may deny the existence of God, but they cannot deny the existence of laws, self acting, and which have an awful power of ensuring their own vindication, let men"s opinions be what they will.

III ITS LESSONS TO US ALL.

1. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that, etc.

2. The inveteracy, violence, and virulence of sin. Notwithstanding all that God has done, and does, to deter men from it, they will cling to it still.

3. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. "When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them. S.C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast given then, blood to drink - Men do not drink out of the sea, but out of fountains and rivers. Therefore this is fitly added here. They are worthy - Is subjoined with a beautiful abruptness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

6. αἷμα. Tisch[541] reads αἵματα with א, a Hebraism.

[541] Tischendorf: eighth edition; where the text aud notes differ the latter are cited.

ἔδωκας. So Text. Rec[542] and Tisch[543], Treg[544] and W. H[545] (marg.) with אB2P; Lach[546], Treg[547], W. H[548] (text) and Weiss read δέδωκας with AC.

[542] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

[543] Tischendorf: eighth edition; where the text aud notes differ the latter are cited.

[544] Tregelles.

[545] H. Westcott aud Hort.

[546] Lachmann’s larger edition.

[547] Tregelles.

[548] H. Westcott aud Hort.

πεῖν with A, C (πιν). Text. Rec[549] reads πιεῖν with all other MSS.

[549] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

ἄξιοί εἰσιν. א has ὅπερ ἄξιοί εἰσιν, am[550] ut digni sunt.

[550] Codex Amiatinus 6th century in Laurentian Library at Florence.

6. αἷμα ἁγίων καὶ προφητῶν. See Rev 11:18, Rev 18:20; Rev 18:24.

πεῖν. See crit. note. This form is also found in St Joh 4:7; Joh 4:9. The infinitive being in the aorist would make the perfect indicative strange.

ἄξιοί εἰσιν. Contrast Rev 3:4; compare Rev 14:5 for asyndeton.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For they are worthy. Omit for.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.