Revelation 4:11
What does Revelation 4:11 mean?
A plain-English look at Revelation 4:11 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Revelation 4:11 means
The elders’ hymn names the reason for God’s supreme worthiness: He is the Creator. All things owe their existence and continued being to His will. Glory, honor, and power rightly belong to Him because without Him nothing would be and nothing would endure. Creation is not self-explanatory or self-sustaining; it rests on God’s purposeful pleasure. This confession grounds worship and, in Revelation’s flow, undergirds the rightness of God’s coming judgments and salvation. The New Testament will reveal the Son’s role in creation and will soon show the Lamb at the center, but here the stress is simple and sweeping: the Maker is worthy.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949It is right, our Lord and our God, for you to have glory and honour and power: because by you were all things made, and by your desire they came into being.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862`Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to receive the glory, and the honour, and the power, because Thou--Thou didst create the all things, and because of Thy will are they, and they were created.'
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power. Because thou hast created all things: and for thy will they were and have been created.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Thou art worthy, O our Lord and [our]God, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created.
Context
This final verse crowns the chapter’s liturgy. After sight, symbol, and response, the elders declare the theological foundation: God’s worth as Creator. With that base laid, the next chapter can introduce the Lamb and the sealed scroll, showing how God’s sovereign right extends to redeeming and judging history. Chapter 4 thus ends not with a mystery to solve but with a certainty to sing—God’s throne, character, and creative will frame everything that follows.
v.10the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
v.11This passage
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 18:3
I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
- Isaiah 40:28
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.
- Acts 17:24
The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
- 1 Chronicles 16:28
Ascribe unto Jehovah, ye kindreds of the peoples, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength;
- Hebrews 1:10
And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of thy hands:
- Job 36:3
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
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