And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
10. How long ] Cf. Psa 94:3.
O Lord ] Not the ordinary word of reverence applied to God, but one meaning (as we say) “lord and master.” It is used of God in Luk 2:29, Act 4:24; and of Christ in Judges 4 (according to the right reading and probable translation), 2Pe 2:1. Perhaps, as the usual word “Lord” in the N. T. and other Hellenistic writings stands for the Name Jehovah, so this is used where the sense “Lord” is really meant, i.e. it answers to the name Adonai, which the Jews pronounced instead of the Unutterable Name, and which Symeon and the Apostolic Church no doubt used in their thanksgivings. Their use of the word, especially in the latter instance, shews that it is no argument for these Martyrs being only Jews as though it proved a servile rather than filial spirit, as some have imagined: at most, it only proves Jewish habits of expression, and it needs no proof that such prevail throughout this Book.
dost thou not avenge ] It has been argued again from this, that the temper of the Martyrs’ souls is less than Christian. But however right it may be to contrast 2Ch 24:22 with Act 7:60, no one can surely imagine that the spirit of this passage is a selfish desire for personal vengeance. As we meet with the germ of the thought in Psa 94:3, so we have a developement of it, substantially identical with this, from the mouth of Christ Himself, Luk 18:2-8. Faith looks on evil with a hatred like God’s own shares God’s will that it shall not triumph, and trusts in God that it will not: but without sharing the depth of God’s counsels, Who knows best how and when to overthrow it. Therefore the Church on earth (the probable meaning of the Widow) and the Saints in heaven, cry alike to God to execute His own purpose, and bring the reign of evil to an end and He does not yet, but He surely will.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. And they cried with a loud voice] That is, their blood, like that of Abel, cried for vengeance; for we are not to suppose that there was any thing like a vindictive spirit in those happy and holy souls who had shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus. We sometimes say Blood cries for blood; that is, in the order of Divine justice, every murderer, and every murdering persecutor, shall be punished.
O Lord] Sovereign Lord, supreme Ruler; one having and exercising unlimited and uncontrolled authority.
Holy] In thy own nature, hating iniquity;
And true] In all thy promises and threatenings;
Dost thou not judge] The persecutors;
And avenge our blood] Inflict signal punishment;
On them that dwell on the earth?] Probably meaning the persecuting Jews; they dwelt , upon that land, a form of speech by which Judea is often signified in the New Testament.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they cried with a loud voice; their blood cried, or their souls cried to God,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy; and therefore thou canst not abide iniquity, and of all iniquity canst least abide innocent blood, which is the blood of thy saints, whose blood is precious in thy sight.
And true; and who art true to thy word of threatenings against blood thirsty men, and to thy promises for the deliverance of thy people.
Dost thou net judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Dost thou not judge our cause, and avenge us, who have committed vengeance to thee, not daring to avenge ourselves upon wicked men, who dwelling upon the earth are seen, and their practices known to and by thee, and are under thy power, so as thou canst at pleasure do it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. How longGreek,“Until when?” As in the parable the woman (symbol of theChurch) cries day and night to the unjust judge for justiceagainst her adversary who is always oppressing her (compare below, Re12:10); so the elect (not only on earth, but under Christ’scovering, and in His presence in Paradise) cry day and nightto God, who will assuredly, in His own time, avenge His and theircause, “though He bear long with them.” Thesepassages need not be restricted to some particular martyrdoms,but have been, and are receiving, and shall receive partialfulfilments, until their last exhaustive fulfilment before Christ’scoming. So as to the other events foretold here. The glory even ofthose in Paradise will only be complete when Christ’s and theChurch’s foes are cast out, and the earth will become Christ’skingdom at His coming to raise the sleeping saints.
LordGreek,“Master”; implying that He has them and their foes and allHis creatures as absolutely at His disposal, as a master has hisslaves; hence, in Re 6:11,”fellow servants,” or fellow slaves follows.
holyGreek, “theHoly one.”
avenge“exactvengeance for our blood.”
onGreek, “fromthem.”
that dwell on the earththeungodly, of earth, earthly, as distinguished from the Church, whosehome and heart are even now in heavenly places.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they cried with a loud voice,…. With great ardour and fervency, being very pressing and importunate; and which shows that they were awake, and not asleep, and that the soul does not sleep with the body in the grave, or is after the death of that in a state of insensibility and inactivity, as some imagine:
saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true; the person they address is either the Lamb in the midst of the throne, with whom they were, and under the shelter of whom they were safe and happy; or God the Father, who sat upon the throne, whom they call “holy”, because being so in his nature, and as appears in all his works, he could not but hate, and so revenge the evil that was done to them by their cruel persecutors; and whereas he is “true” to all his threatenings, as well as his promises, and faithful to every word of his, they doubted not but he would judge and avenge them of their enemies; but they seem desirous to know how long it would be first: saying,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? the men of the world, idolatrous persons, earthly princes, who had shed their blood; and which they desire not out of any sinful or malicious affection, but that the holiness and justice of God might appear, and also his truth and faithfulness in his promises to them, and threatenings to his enemies; and that God in all things might be glorified, and his church and people on earth might be supported and delivered; see Job 24:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How long ( ). “Until when.” Cf. Matt 7:17; John 10:24.
O Master ( ). Nominative articular form, but used as vocative () as in 4:11 (Joh 20:28). On (correlative of ) see Lu 2:29. Here (alone in the Apocalypse) it is applied to God as in Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24, but to Christ in Judg 1:4; 2Pet 2:1.
The holy and true ( ). See 3:7 for these attributes of God.
Avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth ( ). This same idiom in 19:2 and see it also in Lu 18:7f., “a passage which goes far to answer many questions in theodicy” (Swete). We find , late compound, used with as here in Deut 18:19; 1Sam 24:13, but with in Lu 18:3. For (upon the earth) see 3:10.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
They cried [] . See on Mr 5:5.
How long [ ] . Lit., until when. Compare Zec 1:12.
O Lord [ ] . See on 2Pe 2:1. Only here in Revelation. Addressed to God rather than to Christ, and breathing, as Professor Milligan remarks, “the feeling of Old Testament rather than of New Testament relation.” Compare Act 4:24; Jude 1:4.
True [] . See on Joh 1:9; Rev 3:7.
Judge [] . Originally the verb means to separate; thence the idea of selection : to pick out, and so to discriminate or judge.
Avenge [] . Compare Luk 18:3; Rom 12:19.
On the earth [ ] . Earth, in Revelation, is generally to be understood of the ungodly earth.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they cried with a loud voice, saying,” (kai ekraksa n phone megale legontes) “And they cried with a great, loud or megaphone-like voice, saying; The “they” is the redeemed who had been martyred for the testimony of their Lord, who are anxious for righteous judgment vengeance against the wicked murderers of all times, Ecc 12:13-14.
2) “How long, O Lord, holy and true,” (heos pote ho despotes ho hagios kai alethinos) “Until when, at what time, O absolute master, the holy and true one; the Master who has majestic power of a despot to precipitate or pour out final judgment upon all enemies of truth, Act 17:30-31; 2Ti 4:1; Joh 5:30; Rev 3:7.
3) “Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood,” (ou krineis kai ekdikeis to hima hemon) “Dost thou not judge and even avenge our blood; The pouring out of the tribulation the great judgments upon the earth is here referred toas “avenging the blood” of martyrs, as the Lord delays his coming io the earth to end the Battle of Armageddon and to begin his reign, Heb 10:36-37; 2Th 1:4-10; Mat 24:30; Luk 21:27; 1Co 15:24.
4) “On them that dwell on the earth,” (ek ton katoikounton epi te ges) “Out upon those dwelling upon the earth,” those who have taken the side of the world and the devil against the cause of Jesus Christ, his Word, and his church, Rev 11:17-18; Rev 19:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(10) How long . . .?Better. Until when. O Master (the word is the correlative of servant, see Rev. 6:10) the Holy and True, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood from (on) those who dwell on the earth? By a dramatic figure the persecuted and slain ones are represented as crying for retribution on their oppressors. It is not the Christians themselves (Luk. 23:34; and Act. 7:60) who cry for vengeance, any more than it was Abel himself who cried from the ground to God: it was the blood of Abel (Gen. 4:10), the earth disclosed her blood, and refused to cover her slain. The forgotten or ignored wrongs of generations come forth from oblivion and cry for vengeance. It is a poetical description, but it is not fiction. The righteous blood shed does fall upon the world in retribution: the laws of God avenge themselves, though the victims do not live to behold the reward of the ungodly. On the epithets Holy and True, see Notes on Rev. 3:7.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. How long Of course there was no literal utterance by martyred souls of these words. It is a dramatic form of expressing the profound thought that murdered innocence has a claim on the divine justice for timely retribution. The words are an inspired assurance that Jehovah holds himself bound to be not only holy and true, but retributively just. And this is strikingly recognised by Jesus himself in the parable of the unjust judge, and his closing words, so wonderfully like the present passage: “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” Luk 18:7-8, where see our notes.
Judge An appeal for either temporal retribution or for a speedy final judgment throne.
Them that dwell on the earth The profane world; omitting all mention of the few saintly exceptions. So our Lord: “Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” Mat 24:9.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Ver. 10. And they cried ] When God intends deliverance to his people, he poureth out upon them “the spirit of grace and supplication,” Zec 12:9-10 .
How long, O Lord ] Calvin had this speech always in his mouth, breathing out his holy desires in the behalf of the afflicted Churches, with whose sufferings he was more affected than with anything that befell himself. (Beza in Vita.)
Dost thou not judge and avenge ] The glorified souls cannot be properly said to desire revenge; but the cry which they make must be understood to be the provocation of God to vengeance which their sufferings produce in the same sort as Abel’s blood is said to cry. (Thorndike.)
That dwell on the earth ] In opposition to the inhabitants of heaven. As names written in heaven stand opposed to those that are written in the earth, Luk 10:20 ; Jer 17:13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 6:10 . Like Clem. Rom., John is fond of as implying the divine might and majesty ( 3Ma 3:29 ; 3Ma 5:28 ). This severe and awe-inspiring conception ( cf. Philo, quis rer. div. haer. 6) means that God will vindicate his holiness, which had been outraged by the murder of the for whom he is responsible. In contemporary pagan religions throughout Asia Minor, the punishment of wrong-doing is often conceived in the same way, viz. , as the answer to the sufferer’s appeal ( cf. Introd. 2), not simply as a spontaneous act of divine retribution. “How long wilt thou refrain from charging and avenging our blood upon ( as in 1Sa 24:13 , Psa 42:1 ) those who dwell on the earth” ( i.e. , pagans)? The bleeding heart of primitive Christendom stands up and cries, “I have suffered”. For cf. Dittenberger’s Sylloge Inscript. Graec. 816 (1 cent. A.D.) , etc.; for . (= ) of vengeance, cf. Luk 18:3-8 ( ), a close parallel in thought, though this pathetic, impatient thirst for blood-revenge, which has “the full drift of Psa 94 below it” (Selwyn) is inferior not only to 1Pe 2:23 but to the synoptic wail. The Jewish atmosphere is unmistakable ( cf. 2Ma 7:36 ; also Deissmann’s Licht vom Osten , 312 f.), but this does not mean that the passage was necessarily written by a Jew. In that case we should have expected some allusion to the vicarious, atoning power of the martyrs’ death ( R. J. 181). The prophet evidently anticipated further persecution, since he wrote on the verge of the end precipitated by the Domitianic policy ( cf. on Rev 2:13 ). Such persecution follows natural disturbances, as in the synoptic apocalypse (Mat 24:6-7 ; Mat 24:21 f.), but the outline of the fifth seal is taken from Enoch, where (xlvii.) the prayer and blood of the martyred saints “rise from the earth before the Lord of Spirits,” while the angels rejoice that such blood has not been shed in vain. In En. xcvii. 3 5 the prayer of the righteous for vengeance overtakes their persecutors on the day of judgment with woeful issues (xxix. 3, 16). “Persist in your cry for judgment, and it shall appear unto you; for all your tribulation will be visited on the rulers, and on all their helpers, and on those who plundered you” (civ. 3, cf. xxii. 6, 7, where Abel’s pirit complains of Cain). . . . . always in Apocalypse opposed to the saints, almost as “the world” to “the pious” in modern phraseology. This usage is largely paralleled by that of the Noachic interpolations in Enoch (see Charles on xxxvii. 5), where the phrase has either unfavourable or neutral associations. here (as Joh 17:11 = Did. x. 3, Clem. Rom. xxxv. 3, lviii. 1) applied by a comparatively rare usage (1Pe 1:15 and Rev 4:8 being dependent on O.T.) to God, whose intense holiness must be in antagonism to the evil and contradictions of the world (Titius, 9 11).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
loud = great.
voice. As Abel’s blood was said to cry (Gen 4:10).
Lord. App-98.
holy = the Holy.
true = the True.
judge. App-122.
avenge. See Deu 32:43. Luk 18:3. A call consistent with the day of judgment, not with the present day of grace.
on. apo. App-104. but the texts read ek.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they cried: Gen 4:10, Psa 9:12, Luk 18:7, Luk 18:8, Heb 12:24
How: Psa 13:1, Psa 35:17, Psa 74:9, Psa 74:10, Psa 94:3, Psa 94:4, Dan 8:13, Dan 12:6, Zec 1:12
holy: Rev 3:7, Rev 15:3, Rev 15:4
dost: Rev 11:18, Rev 16:5-7, Rev 18:20, Rev 18:24, Rev 19:2, Deu 32:36-43, Jdg 16:28, 1Sa 24:12, Psa 58:10, Psa 58:11, Isa 61:2, Isa 63:1-6, Luk 21:22, Rom 12:19, 2Th 1:6-8
avenge: This seal seems a prediction of the terrible persecution of the church under Dioclesian and Maximian, from ad 270 to 304, which lasted longer, and was far more bloody, than any or all by which it was preceded, whence it was called “the era of the martyrs.
Reciprocal: Num 31:2 – Avenge Deu 32:43 – avenge Jos 10:13 – until Jdg 5:31 – So let 2Sa 4:8 – the Lord 2Ki 9:7 – I may avenge Est 8:13 – avenge themselves Job 7:19 – How long Job 19:2 – How long Psa 7:13 – persecutors Psa 37:10 – yet Psa 44:24 – forgettest Psa 55:19 – hear Psa 79:5 – How long Psa 94:13 – until the pit Psa 119:84 – when Isa 34:8 – General Isa 40:2 – warfare Isa 47:3 – I will take Isa 62:6 – keep Isa 64:12 – General Jer 11:20 – let Jer 15:15 – remember Jer 20:12 – let me Jer 26:19 – Thus Jer 51:24 – General Jer 51:35 – The violence Lam 1:22 – all their Lam 3:64 – General Dan 7:25 – shall wear out Mic 7:9 – until Hab 1:2 – how Hab 2:8 – the violence Hab 2:11 – the stone Mar 9:42 – it 2Th 1:8 – taking 2Ti 4:14 – reward 1Pe 1:15 – is 1Jo 5:20 – him that Rev 6:16 – and from Rev 14:15 – crying Rev 14:18 – came Rev 16:6 – they have Rev 17:6 – the martyrs
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 6:10. And they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? They cried (yet not the martyrs themselves but the blood which represents them) as the blood of Abel cried (Gen 4:10). The cause of holiness and truth suffering in them was at stake; and only as they identify themselves with this great cause do they cry. They cried with a great voice in the earnestness of their cry. The cry is addressed to Him who is spoken of as Master, and by whom we are most probably to understand not Christ but God. There is much indeed that might lead us to think of the former, but the song of chap. Rev 19:1 appears to determine in favour of the latter. Their confidence that God will deliver is confirmed by the thought of the attributes which distinguish Him. He is the holy: therefore He will the more surely punish wickedness. He is the true, that is, certainly not the truthful, which is never the meaning of the word here employed, but either the Being who alone has true and substantial existence, or the Master who completely corresponds with the idea of what a Master ought to be.Their cry is, How long will it be before the Judge arises to claim the victory as His own, and to punish His adversaries as they deserve? Those who are thus to be judged are then described as they that dwell upon the earth; and by the earth here, as almost always in the Apocalypse, is to be understood the ungodly earth: those that dwell on it are the ungodly. It may be observed that all the ungodly are included. This is allowed by the best commentators, and it supplies a strong argument in favour of what was said with regard to the number of those underneath the altar,there all the godly belonging to the time spoken of; here all the ungodly.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 10
And they cried, &c. This voice, and also the earthquake mentioned as taking place upon the opening of the sixth seal, (Revelation 6:12,) and the silence in heaven which marked the opening of the seventh, (Revelation 8:1,) show that these visions were not representations delineated in the book, as its several portions were successively unfolded, but that they were visions exhibited to the mind of John, in action the opening of the seals being, as it were, only the signals for their appearance.–Dost thou not judge and avenge, &c. This is not to be understood as expressing their personal desire for the punishment of their enemies, but as the voice of their blood crying for vengeance, just as, in the case of Cain, the voice of his brother’s blood was said to cry to God from the ground. The meaning of the whole plainly is, that, though the servants of Christ must suffer trial and persecution for a long period, they should not be forgotten, but that their blood should be avenged in due time.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
John saw these martyrs calling out to their heavenly Master (Gr. despotes) to punish their murderers. Contrast the prayers of Jesus (Luk 23:34) and Stephen (Act 7:60) in which they asked God to be merciful to their murderers. The difference is that the time of God’s longsuffering has now ended and He has begun to pour out His wrath on sinners. "Master" implies divine might, majesty, power, and authority, and it stresses the absolute power of God. [Note: Moffatt, 5:391; Lange, 176; Robertson, 6:344; Alford, 4:619.] How much longer did they have to wait for God to avenge them (cf. Psa 79:10; Psa 94:3; Hab 1:2)? "Holy and true" were attributes of Christ earlier (Rev 3:7), but here the Father is probably in view since He is the ultimate source of the judgments. "Those who dwell on the earth" is almost a technical expression in Revelation describing unbelievers who are hostile to God (cf. Rev 3:10; Rev 8:13; Rev 11:10; Rev 13:8; Rev 13:12; Rev 17:2; Rev 17:8).
"Their [the Tribulation martyrs’] prayers for revenge upon their enemies are viewed as the fifth judgment against the earth-dwellers." [Note: Robert Thomas, "The Imprecatory Prayers of the Apocalypse," Bibliotheca Sacra 125:502 (April-June 1969):127; idem, Revelation 1-7, pp. 517-24.]