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.
20. the city ] Probably Jerusalem, see on Rev 14:1.
blood ] Isa 63:3.
even unto the horse bridles ] Literally, even unto the bridles of the horses though no horses are mentioned in the context. Probably the A. V. is right that it is meant as a mere measure, that any horseman riding there finds his horse bridle-deep in blood: but some think of the horsemen of God’s avenging army in Rev 19:14. There can hardly be a reference to the horses of chap. 6 or of Rev 9:17.
by the space of ] Lit. from perhaps best translated “from a distance of.”
a thousand and six hundred furlongs ] 200 Roman miles, or about 183 English. It is hardly likely that it is meant, that the blood covered a space of 40 furlongs square more probably, that it extended 1600 (or perhaps 800) in every direction from the city. It has been imagined that the distance specified stands for the length of Palestine, which is estimated by St Jerome at 160 Roman miles, by modern surveys at about 140 English.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the wine-press was trodden without the city – The representation was made as if it were outside of the city – that is, the city of Jerusalem, for that is represented as the abode of the holy. The word trodden refers to the manner in which wine was usually prepared, by being trodden by the feet of people. See the notes on Isa 63:2. The wine-press was usually in the vineyard – not in the city – and this is the representation here. As appearing to the eye of John, it was not within the walls of any city, but standing without.
And blood came out of the wine-press – The representation is, that there would be a great destruction which would be well represented by the juice flowing from a wine-press.
Even unto the horse bridles – Deep, as blood would be in a field of slaughter where it would come up to the very bridles of the horses. The idea is, that there would be a great slaughter.
By the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs – That is, two hundred miles; covering a space of two hundred miles square – a lake of blood. This is designed to represent a great slaughter; but why the space here employed to describe it was chosen is unknown. Some have supposed it was in allusion to the length of Palestine. Prof. Stuart supposes that it refers to the breadth of Italy, and that the allusion is to the attack made on the city of the beast. But it is impossible to determine why this space was chosen, and it is unnecessary. The idea is, that there would be a slaughter so great, as it were, as to produce a lake or sea of blood; that the enemies of the church would be completely and finally overthrown, and that the church, therefore, delivered from all its enemies, would be triumphant.
The design of this, as of the previous representations in this chapter, is to show that all the enemies of God will be destroyed, and that, therefore, the hearts of the friends of religion should be cheered and consoled in the trials and persecutions which were to come upon it. What could be better suited to sustain the church in the time of trial, than the assurance that every foe will be ultimately cut off? What is better suited to sustain the heart of the individual believer, than the assurance that all his foes will be quelled, and that he will ere long be safe in heaven?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. 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 favourable sickle of Jesus Christ reaps his wheat when ripe for heaven, so that of the executioners of his justice cuts off from this life the tares which are only fit for the fire of hell. Then shall the blood of Christ cease to be trampled on by sinners; and that of the wicked shall be eternally trodden down in hell, which is the winepress of the wrath of God.
“And the winepress was trodden without the city, eternally without the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, and far from the presence of God; eternally crushed and trodden down by his justice; eternally tormented in body and soul, without any hope either of living or dying! This is the miserable lot and portion of those who shall have despised the law of God, and died in impenitence. My God, pierce my heart with a salutary dread of thy judgments!”
Whatever these passages may mean, this is a prudent and Christian use of them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the winepress was trodden without the city: by the city, Dr. More thinks Babylon is here meant, and that the meaning is, that the powerful convictions of the word before mentioned, shall not reach Babylon, the Romish hierarchy and polity, as being hardened against any such thing. But Mr. Mede and others think, that the city of Jerusalem is here meant, or the Holy Land, which comprehends exactly one thousand six hundred furlong, that is, two hundred Italian miles, or one hundred and sixty Grecian miles. But what that place shall be, where this slaughter shall be, is a great secret.
And blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs: it is plain it shall be a great slaughter, by the depth of the blood mentioned, and the length of the ground which it should to that depth overflow. It is very probable, that great battle is meant, mentioned Rev 19:20,21, in the place called Armageddon, upon the pouring out of the sixth vial, Rev 16:16. In so difficult a business nothing can be positively determined.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. without the cityJerusalem.The scene of the blood-shedding of Christ and His people shall bealso the scene of God’s vengeance on the Antichristian foe. Comparethe “horsemen,” Rev 9:16;Rev 9:17.
bloodanswering to thered wine. The slaughter of the apostates is what is here spoken of,not their eternal punishment.
even unto the horsebridlesof the avenging “armies of heaven.”
by the space of a thousand .. . six hundred furlongsliterally, “a thousand sixhundred furlongs off” [W. KELLY].Sixteen hundred is a square number; four by four by one hundred. Thefour quarters, north, south, east, and west, of the Holy Land,or else of the world (the completeness and universality of theworld-wide destruction being hereby indicated). It does not exactlyanswer to the length of Palestine as given by JEROME,one hundred sixty Roman miles. BENGELthinks the valley of Kedron, between Jerusalem and the Mount ofOlives, is meant, the torrent in that valley being about to bediscolored with blood to the extent of sixteen hundred furlongs. Thisview accords with Joel’s prophecy that the valley of Jehoshaphat isto be the scene of the overthrow of the Antichristian foes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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. Re 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
Mt 22:13.
and blood came out of the winepress; alluding to the juice squeezed out of grapes, called the blood of grapes, Ge 49:11.
Even unto the horses’ bridles, for the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs; which is only an hyperbolical expression, setting forth the largeness and universality of the destruction of the wicked, and the impossibility of their escaping it. In like manner the Jews express a great slaughter of men; so of the slaughter at Bither, by Adrian, they say e, they went on slaying –
, “until a horse plunged in blood up to his nostrils”, and the blood ran four miles into the sea; which is not to be understood literally, but as expressing a prodigious effusion of blood: and as to
the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs, perhaps there may be an allusion to the measure of the land of Israel, and the common notion of it among the Jews, who make it to be the square of four hundred parsoe f: hence they often speak of the land of Israel shaking and moving four hundred “parsoe”, upon some extraordinary occasions g; and a “parsa” contained four miles h, so that four hundred “parsoe” made a thousand and six hundred miles; and if miles and furlongs are the same, in which sense only the land of Israel could be so large, here is the exact space; for Jerom i, who was an inhabitant of it, says, it was scarce 160 miles in length, to which agrees R. Menachem k; and it may be observed, that the Arabic version renders the words, “by the space of a thousand and six hundred miles”. The Ethiopic version, very wrongly, reads, “sixteen furlongs”.
e T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 69. 1. f T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 28. 1. Gloss. in ib. g T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 3. 1. & Bava Kama, fol. 82. 2. & Menachot, fol. 64. 2. h T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 92. 2. Gloss. in ib. i Ad Dardanum, fol. 22. 1. Tom. 3. k In Gen. fol. 60.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was trodden (). First aorist passive indicative of , to tread. The image of treading out the grapes is a familiar one in the East. Perhaps Isa 63:3 is in mind.
Without the city ( ). Ablative case with (like ). This was the usual place (Heb 13:12). See in 11:2. Joel (Joe 3:12) pictures the valley of Jehoshaphat as the place of the slaughter of God’s enemies. Cf. Zec 14:4.
Blood from the winepress ( ). Bold imagery suggested by the colour of the grapes.
Unto the bridles ( ). Old word (from to slacken), in N.T. only here and Jas 3:3. Bold picture.
As far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs ( ). A peculiar use of , for “distance from (of)” as also in John 11:18; John 21:8, somewhat like the use of in Joh 12:1. The distance itself covers the length of Palestine, but it is more likely that “the metaphor is worked out with the exuberance of apocalyptic symbolism” (Swete) for the whole earth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Furlong [] . The furlong or stadium was 606 3/4 English feet.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the winepress was trodden,” (kai epatethe he lenos) “And the (great) winepress was trodden,” or pressed down of foot; the anger of God was crushed down upon his rebellious wife, Israel, on earth, Isa 63:3-6; La 1:15.
2) “Without the city,” (eksothen tes poleos) “Outside of the city,” the central populated area of the Metropolis, even as they rejected our Lord and crucified him “without the gate”, Heb 13:12.
3) “And blood came out of the winepress,” (kai ekselthen haima ek tes lenou) “And blood went forth (in every direction) out of, originating from the winepress,” the place of crushing Judgment in this battle, Isa 63:1-6.
4) “Even unto the horse bridles,” (achri ton chalinon ton hippon) “As far as (unto) the bridles of the horses; to the height of the horse’s bridle, about 36 inches to 42 inches from the ground.
5) “By the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs,” (apo stadion chilion heksakosion) “From (along a distance of) a thousand (and) six hundred furlongs,” about two hundred miles, believed to occur in the Valley of Jehoshaphat or near the Holy City, where Satan makes his final stand against God on earth, before he is bound, Dan 11:45; Zec 14:4; Joe 3:2; Joe 3:12-17.
THE LORD OF THE HARVEST
One other point ought to be particularly noticed before we close the consideration of-this chapter. The harvest of the good is gathered in by the Lord Himself, that of the wicked by His angel. The same lesson appears to be reading the parables of the tares and of the draw-net. And is there not a beauty and tenderness in this contrast? It is as though that Son of man and Son of God who is the Judge of the quick and the dead, the Judge alike of the righteous and of the wicked, loved one half of His office, and loved not the other. It is as though He cherished as His own prerogative the harvest of the earth, and were glad to delegate to other hands the vintage. It is as though the ministry of mercy were His chosen office, and the ministry of wrath His stern necessity. One like unto the Son of man puts forth the sickle of the ingathering; one of the created, though it be of angelic nature, is employed to send forth the sickle of destruction.
-W. Milligan
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20. Without the city As grapes and vintage are usually rural matters, so this symbolic picture, 14-20, reaches not to the complete downfall of the city, but to the adjacent slaughters. But what city? The bewildered Alford, with many others, replies Jerusalem! But throughout this whole chapter Jerusalem is the place of the menace, and Babylon is its object.
Even unto the horses’ bridles The visional sky-horses waded in blood so deep that their bridles were visionally bathed in its crimson.
A thousand and six hundred The root of this number is the creational four, intimating that this battle is no local event, but world-wide. This view is intensified by the squaring of the four and the multiplying of that square, sixteen, by the square of ten, one hundred. This brief menacing cloud-picture of the coming contest predicts that the destruction from the city will spread over the earth; or rather, perhaps, indicates that the real city is itself earthwide in locality.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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.
Ver. 20. And the winepress was trodden ] viz. By Christ the King, with his heavenly horsemen, Rev 19:13-14 .
Without the city ] i.e. Without the Church, haply in Judea, whither the pope being driven from Rome, shall fly and sit, till Christ shall unroost him with the brightness of his coming, 2Th 2:8 .
Even unto the horse bridles ] To confute the pride and cruelty of those bloody Papists that threatened to ride their horses up to the saddleskirts in the blood of the Lutherans. (Flac. Illyr.) So Famesius, Minerius, Felix of Wurtemburg, Sir Charles Ellerker, Charles IX of France, that cruel Queen, who when she saw some of her Protestant subjects lying dead, and stripped upon the earth, cried out, The goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld. These and the like shall be one day glutted with blood, which they have so barbarously thirsted after. Satia te sanguine, quem sitiisti, &c., Satisty with your blood which you were so thirsty for, as she said of Cyrus. (Justin, lib. i.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 14:20 . The heathen are stamped and crushed till their blood gushes out of the wine-press to the height of a horse’s bridle and to the extent of about two hundred miles. This ghastly hyperbole, borrowed partly from Egyptian (wine = the blood of those who fought against the gods) and partly from Jewish eschatology (En. c. 3: “and the horses will walk up to the breast in the blood of sinners, and the chariot will be submerged to its height”), happens to be used later by the Talmud in connexion with the carnage at Bether ( cf. Schlatter’s Die Tage Trajans , p. 37; also Sib. iii. 633 f.; 4 Esd. 15:35; Sil. Ital. iii. 704). The place is to be a veritable Senlac (sang lac). . . ., probably a round number (see crit. note) compounded out 4 and its multiples (like 144,000 out of 12), to denote completeness (Vict. = per omnes mundi quattuor partes). After the fall of Rome (Rev 14:8 f.), the rest of the world ( ex hypothesi impenitent, Rev 14:6-8 ) is ripe for the traditional (Dan 9:26 ) judgment. The same sequence is reproduced roughly and on a larger scale in 17 18. (fall of Rome) and 19 20. (doom of other nations). This parallelism and the sense of the Joel passage militate against the attractive idea that Rev 14:14-16 is the ingathering of the saints (so Alford, Milligan, Bruston, Briggs, Titius, Gilbert, and Swete). . . . This fearful vengeance is located by Jewish tradition in some valley (of Jehoshaphat = Yah judges?) near Jerusalem (Joel), on the mount of Olives (Zec 14:4 ), or in Palestine generally (Dan 11:45 ; cf. below on Rev 16:16 ), i.e. , as a rule in close proximity to the sacred capital, where the messiah was to set up his kingdom.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
by the space of = as far as. Greek. apo. App-104.
thousand. Greek. chilioi. As Rev 11:3; Rev 12:6, and in Rev 20.
six hundred. See Rev 13:18.
furlongs. See App-51.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 14:20. , blood) the blood of clusters of grapes, red wine, that is, the blood of the wicked. The Figure Metalepsis. The slaughter of the wicked is intimated, not their eternal torture. Other enemies also afterwards fall into the wine-press: ch. Rev 19:15.- , , unto the bridles of the horses, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs) Each phrase denotes a deep and long torrent of blood. Comp. ch. 11 , …, is also used of an interval of space, Joh 11:18. Some followers of the Rabbinical school refer this to the circuit or to the length of Palestine. But its length, even if you include the districts which are lofty and secure from inundation, is much less: its circuit is much greater. What if the valley Kidron, which lies between the city Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (Act 1:12), be meant? For the torrent in that valley, together with its windings, and in the sea itself, as far as it shall be stained with blood, may have a length of 1600 furlongs. Let us take the expression literally. [Comp. Eze 32:6.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the winepress: Isa 63:1-3, Lam 1:15
without: Rev 11:8, Heb 13:11, Heb 13:12
and blood: Rev 19:14-21, Isa 34:5-7, Isa 66:24, Eze 39:17-21
Reciprocal: Psa 58:10 – wash Psa 110:6 – fill Psa 119:118 – trodden Isa 34:3 – and the mountains Isa 49:26 – drunken Isa 63:3 – trodden Jer 25:33 – the slain Eze 16:6 – polluted Eze 24:9 – Woe Eze 30:11 – and fill Eze 32:6 – water Mal 4:3 – tread down Joh 6:19 – furlongs Joh 11:18 – fifteen furlongs Act 10:15 – What Rev 19:13 – clothed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 14:20. The symbol continues with the same significance but with some added specifications. Being done without the city denotes that the punishment of the wicked will be outside the holy city in the eternal world. In computing the amount of blood (of the grape) that came out we must not forget that the whole performance is symbolic, and the volume is given in order to furnish us some idea of the terrible fate of those whose unrighteous lives have brought upon them the wrath of God. To be conservative I suppose unto the horse bridles would be about four feet. The amount was enough to flood the ground for a distance of a thousand and six hundred furlongs or two hundred miles. Nothing is said about any kind of retainer on the sides, hence to be wide enough to flow freely that far and that deep (if only in the center) would require a considerable width. It all should give us a profound impression of the fate of those who die out of Christ.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 20.
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came from the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six furlongs–Rev 14:20.
This was a description of the Roman armies gathered outside the city as God’s agents of retribution against Judah and Jerusalem for their apostasies. The context presents a dual vision. First, the two beasts of the sea and of the land were symbolic of the combined effort of Roman and minion persecutors to destroy the church. These two persecutors were the objects of divine indignation in this vision of the great winepress of the wrath of God. Second, the fallen Babylon of verse 8 was Jerusalem–the faithful city turned harlot.
The symbolic description of these scenes envisioned the terrible war against Jerusalem, when the Roman armies gathered outside the city to tread Jerusalem as the winepress. The blood that came out of the winepress even unto the horse bridles signified the horrible slaughter, as though the battle horses waded in blood to their bridles. This was the vivid apocalyptic hyperbole of wrath so great and terrible that was administered to Judah and Jerusalem by the Romans in the Jewish war.
4. In the closing scene of this chapter the great winepress of the wrath of God would envelop the entire land of the Jews–the whole of Palestine. The last phrase of Rev 14:20 declares that the winepress was trodden without the city . . . by the space of a thousand and six furlongs. Mathematically computed that distance was the approximate length of the land of Palestine, and it was symbolic of the deluge of blood over the whole land during the siege of Jerusalem, and the war against the Jews, which ended with destruction of the city, the demolition of the temple, the downfall of Judaism and the final end of the Jewish state. It was the fearful vision of the inevitable and inexorable judgment of God against an incorrigible nation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 14:20. And the winepress was trodden without the city. In the words without the city we can hardly fail to see another instance of the lex talionis: our Lord had suffered without the gate.
And blood came out of the winepress even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs. The juice of the grape here passes into the reality, blood, which it was intended to represent (comp. Isa 63:1-3). It is difficult to say what may be the exact meaning of the first part of the description of the great sea of bloodthat its depth was to the bridles of the horses. There is nothing to suggest the idea that the horses represent the chiefs of the people. Commentators generally abandon such an interpretation, but substitute none of their own, occupying themselves rather with the inquiry, whether these horses are those of the angels of chap. Rev 9:15 or those of the host that come up to the destruction of Jerusalem. May the words of Zec 14:20 supply the needed explanation, In that day shall there be upon the bells (bridles) of the horses, HOLINESS unto the Lord? The thought of the Seer may be that the blood could not be so deep as to touch these holy words. The extent of the sea of blood is less difficult to determine. We may at once dismiss the idea that it is taken from the superficial area of the Holy Land or of the old territories of the Pope, or that the expression denotes simply great extent. We must start from the fact that we have to deal with a judgment by which the whole ungodly world is overtaken, and that four is the number of the world. This number is first squared for completeness, and then multiplied by 100, a number, as we have seen, belonging to the wicked, while 1000 belongs rather to the good. Thus we have 4 x 4 x 100, representing the whole surface of the earth, wherever the ungodly are to be found.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 20
Unto the horse-bridles; that is, in depth. The bridle of the horse dipping into the surface of water through which the rider is passing, indicates to him the depth of the flood.–A thousand and six hundred furlongs; over a vast extent of ground. These expressions are designed to indicate the greatness and the extent of the destruction with which the enemies of God will finally be overwhelmed.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, {15} and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand [and] six hundred furlongs.
(15) That is, overflowed very deep, and very far and wide: the speech is exaggeration to signify the greatness of the slaughter. These are those pleasant fruits truly, of the contempt of Christ, and desiring of Antichrist rather than him, which the miserable, mad and blind world reaps at this time.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Since the city in view escapes this judgment, Babylon is evidently not the city in view. It is instead Jerusalem. The Old Testament predicted that a final battle would take place near Jerusalem, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (i.e., the Kidron Valley just to the east of Jerusalem; Joe 3:12-14; Zec 14:4; cf. Rev 11:2). It seems probable that blood will literally flow up to the height of horses’ bridles (about four and one-half feet) in some places in that valley. Obviously many people will have to die for this amount of blood to flow.
Blood came out from the wine press of God’s wrath for a distance of 200 miles (lit. 1,600 stadia). Evidently this figure describes the judgment that will take place all over Palestine, not just in the Valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem, at this time. Much of this action will take place in the Valley of Jezreel in northern Israel (i.e., the battle of Armageddon; Rev 19:17-19). There God will put vast numbers of people to death (cf. Isa 63:1-6). The blood will evidently drain out of the Jezreel Valley for a distance of 200 miles, probably eastward down the Harod Valley to the Jordan Valley and south into the Dead Sea.
Many interpreters, even some dispensationalists, believe that what we read in this verse is simply a symbolic way of picturing a terrible judgment. [Note: E.g., Wiersbe, 2:608.] Amillennial interpreters often take this description as picturing a worldwide judgment. [Note: E.g., Beale, p. 782.]
This chapter contains a prophetic preview of the major events yet future from John’s perspective in his vision. That is, they deal with events leading up to the end of the Great Tribulation.