Revelation 6:16

These are words of such as despair of their escape: of which despair there are two arguments, the presence of God and the Lamb provoked to wrath against the world in this verse, and the conscience of their own weakness, whereby men feel that they are no way able to stand in the day of the wrath of God, verse 17, as it is said, Isa. 14:27.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

from the face-- (Psa 34:16). On the whole verse, compare Hos 10:8; Luk 23:30.

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 16. 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.

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

16. and said] should be and they say.

to the mountains, &c.] Hos_10:8 : adopted by our Lord, Luk_23:30. In that passage, it is entirely natural to understand Him to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem only: and therefore it does not seem necessary to understand this vision as implying that the Last Judgement is immediately to come. A judgement of the Lord has now been prepared for, by all the signs that He foretold of it: His Disciples, no doubt, will “look up and lift up their heads,” while the world which does not “love His appearing” is terrified. And we see in the next chapter that the faith of those is not unrewarded: but the dread of these is not immediately realised. In fact, the last “Day of the Lord” will come “when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety’ ” (1Th_5:3)—not therefore, apparently, preceded by terrors like those among the ungodly, but rather by an unbelief (not so uncommon now) that has outlived such alarms, and asks, “Where is the promise of His Coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

from the face of him that sitteth, &c.] In spite of Joh_5:22, it seems plain that the Father as well as the Son will be specially present and specially revealed in the judgement. See Mat_16:27 and parallels: which are to be taken into account in the interpretation of Tit_2:13, and of ch. Rev_20:11 in the book.

from the wrath of the Lamb] It is scarcely necessary to point out the paradoxical character of the words, and its deep significance.

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 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 (t) 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 (u) 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 (w). 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 Psa 2:12.

(t) Aurel. Victor. Epitome. (u) Euseb. Hist. l. 9. c. 10. & de Vita Constantin. l. 1. c. 59. (w) Euseb. de Vita Constantin. l. 2. c. 18.

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

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.

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.

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us: see Hos 10:8; Luk 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.

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

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 Rev_9:6.

Sitteth on the throne—Not the apocalyptic symbol throne of Rev_4:1, but the judgment throne of Rev_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.

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

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face (cf. Hos_10:8, "They shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us;" also Luk_23:30, "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us of him that sitteth on the throne. The Triune God. (see on Rev_4:2) And from the wrath of the Lamb. The result of the wroth of the Lamb is depicted in Rev_21:8. God"s wrath with the wicked is the assurance of his mercy and love for the righteous. Thus in Rev_11:18, we have, "The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants," etc. Similarly, in Rev_14:10-13, the wrath of God upon the wicked is associated with the peace of the faithful.

"The wrath of the Lamb.

"Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb." Wrath is a terrible thing. But the most terrible of all wrath we have here the wrath of the Lamb. "Hide us." Who says this? "The kings of the earth, the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man." These men had, no doubt, braved terrible things during their existence, but they could not brave this. It struck an overwhelming horror into their souls. What makes this wrath so terrible?

I ITS UNEXAMPLED STRANGENESS. Who ever saw a lamb in a rage? The wrath of a lion, a tiger, or a bear, this is common, this is natural. But the lamb is essentially meek, tender, yielding. Of all creatures this is the last creature that could be excited to wrath. As a rule, whatever is strange is more or less alarming. A strange comet, a strange heaving of the sea, or a strange vibration in the earth. The wrath of a tender, loving, meek-minded man is a far more terrible thing than the wrath of an irascible nature. The more difficulty you have in exciting wrath the more terrible it is when it appears. When the Lamb is in wrath it implies some terrible provocation, and that provocation is sin. The wrath of the Lamb is an ocean of oil in flames. Well may it strike terror. Another reason why this wrath is so terrible is

II ITS INFINITE PURITY. The lamb is the emblem of innocence. The wrath of the Lamb is not a passion, but a principle. It is not malign, but benevolent. It is not against existence, but against its sins and its crimes. Anger in man is necessarily an evil. Hence we are commanded to be "angry and sin not." Learn from this that we turn our greatest blessing into the greatest curse. Our optic and auricular organs may be so diseased as to give to the most beautiful objects and most melodious sounds in nature a power to convey into us the most poignant anguish, and so our moral nature may become so corrupt as to turn love into wrath, and blessedness into misery. D.T.

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

To the mountains and the rocks - Which were tottering already, verse

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

16. καὶ λέγουσιν. The present after ἔκρυψαν suggests that ἔκρυψαν like καὶ ἐτελέσθη Rev 10:7 is an Hebraistic equivalent to the future.

τοῖς ὄρεσιν. Hos 10:8: adopted by our Lord, Luk 23:30. In that passage, it is entirely natural to understand Him to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem only: and therefore, though we are not meant to suppose that everything revealed further on in the Book comes between the Sixth Seal and the End, it does not seem necessary to understand this vision as implying that the Last Judgement is immediately to come. A judgement of the Lord has now been prepared for, by all the signs that He foretold of it: His disciples, no doubt, will “look up and lift up their heads,” while the world which does not “love His appearing” is terrified. And we see in the next chapter that the faith of those is not unrewarded: but the dread of these is not immediately realised. In fact, the last “Day of the Lord” will come “when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety’ ” (1Th 5:3)—not therefore, apparently, preceded by terrors like those among the ungodly, but rather by an unbelief (not so uncommon now) that has outlived such alarms, and asks, “Where is the promise of His Coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

ἀπὸ προσώπον τοῦ καθημένου. All judgement is committed to the Son, Joh 5:22, but this does not exclude the special presence and Revelation of the Father in the final manifestation of the Divine Righteousness. See Mat 16:27 and parallels, which are to be taken into account in the interpretation of Tit 2:13, and of chap. 22 in this Book.

ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου. It is scarcely necessary to point out the paradoxical character of the words and their deep significance. The phrase is unique; if αὐτοῦ be read in the next verse it cannot refer, as it would in ordinary Greek, to τοῦ ἀρνίου. The great day of His wrath is something familiar and known.

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.

Said [λεγουσιν] . Lit., say. So Rev.

Fall on us. Compare Hos 10:8; Luk 23:30.

Wrath [οργης] . Denoting a deep - seated wrath. See on Joh 3:36.

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