Devine Scripture

Revelation 6:17

What does Revelation 6:17 mean?

A plain-English look at Revelation 6:17 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Revelation 6:17 means

All classes declare that the great day of their wrath has come and ask, "Who is able to stand?" The question admits that no human strength can endure God’s judgment. It implicitly asks for an answer beyond human resources—one that chapter 7 will provide by showing the sealed servants of God and a multitude standing before the throne and the Lamb. The verse concludes the sixth seal with solemn finality: the day has arrived, and only those whom God establishes can remain. It presses home the truth that safety is found not in status or hiding places but in the favor of Him who judges.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?

KJV

King James Version · 1611

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

For the great day of their wrath is come, and who may keep his place?

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

because come did the great day of His anger, and who is able to stand?

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

For the great day of their wrath is come. And who shall be able to stand?

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

because the great day of his wrath is come, and who is able to stand?

Context

The chapter ends with a rhetorical question that creates a dramatic pause. Before the seventh seal is opened (not until chapter 8), chapter 7 will answer this question by displaying God’s preserving grace for His people amid judgment. Thus, verse 17 functions as both conclusion and hinge, linking the terror of the sixth seal to the comfort of God’s sealing work, and inviting readers to seek their standing in relation to the Lamb.

v.16and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

v.17This passage

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Joel 2:31

    The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh.

  • Isaiah 13:6

    Wail ye; for the day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

  • Joel 2:11

    And Jehovah uttereth his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

  • Psalms 76:7

    Thou, even thou, art to be feared; And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?

  • Revelation 11:18

    And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth.

  • Luke 21:36

    But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

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