Revelation 14:10

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:6-13 The progress of the Reformation appears to be here set forth. The four proclamations are plain in their meaning; that all Christians may be encouraged, in the time of trial, to be faithful to their Lord. The gospel is the great means whereby men are brought to fear God, and to give glory to him. The preaching of the everlasting gospel shakes the foundations of antichrist in the world, and hastens its downfal. If any persist in being subject to the beast, and in promoting his cause, they must expect to be for ever miserable in soul and body. The believer is to venture or suffer any thing in obeying the commandments of God, and professing the faith of Jesus. May God bestow this patience upon us. Observe the description of those that are and shall be blessed: such as die in the Lord; die in the cause of Christ, in a state of union with Christ; such as are found in Christ when death comes. They rest from all sin, temptation, sorrow, and persecution; for there the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest. Their works follow them: do not go before as their title, or purchase, but follow them as proofs of their having lived and died in the Lord: the remembrance of them will be pleasant, and the reward far above all their services and sufferings. This is made sure by the testimony of the Spirit, witnessing with their spirits, and the written word.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God - See notes on Revelation 14:8. The "wine of the wrath of God" is the cup in the hand of the Lord, which, when drunk, makes them reel and fall. The image would seem to have been taken from the act of holding out a cup of poison to a condemned man that he might drink and die. See the sentiment here expressed illustrated in the notes on Isaiah 51:17.

Which is poured out without mixture - Without being diluted with water - that is, in its full strength. In other words, there would be no mitigation of the punishment.

Into the cup of his indignation - The cup held in his hand, and given them to drink. This is expressive of his indignation, as it causes them to reel and fall. The sentiment here is substantially the same, though in another form, as what is expressed in 2 Thessalonians 2:12. See the notes on that verse.

And he shall be tormented - Shall be punished in a manner that would be well represented by being burned with fire and brimstone. On the meaning of this word see the notes on Revelation 9:5; Revelation 11:10. Compare also Revelation 18:7, Revelation 18:10, Revelation 18:15; Revelation 20:10; Matthew 8:29; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28. The word commonly denotes "severe torture."

With fire and brimstone - As if with burning sulphur. See the notes on Luke 17:28-30. Compare Psalm 11:6; Job 18:15; Isaiah 30:33; Ezekiel 38:22. The imagery is taken from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:24. The common representation of the punishment of the wicked is, that it will be in the manner here represented, Matthew 5:22; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 18:9; Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:44-48; 2 Peter 3:7; Jde 1:7; Revelation 20:14. Compare the Matthew 5:22 note; Mark 9:44 note.

In the presence of the holy angels - This may mean either:

(a) that the angels will be present at their condemnation Matthew 25:31, or.

(b) that the punishment will be actually witnessed by the angels, as it is most probable it will be. Compare Isaiah 66:24; Luke 16:23-26.

And in the presence of the Lamb - The Lamb of God - the final Judge. This also may mean either that the condemnation will occur in his presence, or that the punishment will be under his eye. Both of these things will be true in regard to him; and it will be no small aggravation of the punishment of the wicked, that it will occur in the very presence of their slighted and rejected Saviour.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. The same—Greek, "he also," as the just and inevitable retribution.

wine of … wrath of God—(Ps 75:8).

without mixture—whereas wine was so commonly mixed with water that to mix wine is used in Greek for to pour out wine; this wine of God's wrath is undiluted; there is no drop of water to cool its heat. Naught of grace or hope is blended with it. This terrible threat may well raise us above the fear of man's threats. This unmixed cup is already mingled and prepared for Satan and the beast's followers.

indignation—Greek, "orges," "abiding wrath," But the Greek for "wrath" above (Greek, "thumou") is boiling indignation, from (Greek, "thuo") a root meaning "to boil"; this is temporary ebullition of anger; that is lasting [Ammonius], and accompanied with a purpose of vengeance [Origen on Psalm 2:5].

tormented … in the presence of … angels—(Ps 49:14; 58:10; 139:21; Isa 66:24). God's enemies are regarded by the saints as their enemies, and when the day of probation is past, their mind shall be so entirely one with God's, that they shall rejoice in witnessing visibly the judicial vindication of God's righteousness in sinners' punishment.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Those that do yield a subjection to him, and profess his faith,

shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God; that is, shall feel the severity of God’s judicial dispensations, which in Scripture are expressed by the wine cup of his fury, Jeremiah 25:15; see also Job 21:20 Psalm 75:8 Isaiah 51:17; either from the intoxicating quality of wine, or the stupifying quality of it, when mixed with myrrh, or other stupifying things. But here it is said without mixture, which signifies their sensible feeling of the effects of Divine wrath.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; that is, in short, he shall go to hell at last; the exquisiteness of which torments, as to the pain of sense, is set out by fire and brimstone; brimstone being a material in which fire holds longest to torment any flesh put into it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,.... Which is a just punishment for their sin; that as such have drank of the wine of the wrath of Rome's fornication, Revelation 14:8 so they shall now drink of the wine of God's wrath; it is usual in Scripture to express the punishment God inflicts upon wicked men by his wrath, and by the wine cup of his fury; and their suffering such punishment, by their drinking of it; see Jeremiah 25:15 so , "the wine of wrath", is a phrase used by the Jews (q):

which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation; sometimes called a cup of fury and of trembling, Isaiah 51:17 and is sometimes said to be full of mixture, Psalm 75:8 of various ingredients of wrath and fury; and the words may be rendered here, "which is mixed without mixture": and though it seems to carry in it a contradiction, yet is true in different senses; it may be said to be mixed as wine with various sorts, which is the stronger, and sooner inebriates and intoxicates; or in allusion to the cup the Jews gave to malefactors, to stupefy them, when going to execution, which had various things put in it for that purpose; See Gill on Mark 15:23 and so designs the several ingredients in the cup of divine indignation, or the several ways in which God expresses his wrath; and yet it is without mixture; it is judgment without mercy, pure wrath, without the least allay; not so much as a drop of cold water granted, or the least your shown, or any mitigation of fury for a moment:

and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone: in allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which are now a burning and a sulphurous lake, called Asphaltites, and is an example, pattern, and similitude of the vengeance of eternal fire, Jde 1:7 and hence the beast and false prophet are said to be cast into such a lake, Revelation 19:20 and here their followers will be punished; which is expressive of the horrible torments of hell, and the dreadful punishment of the antichristian party there; see Psalm 11:6 and what will aggravate their misery is, that it will be

in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; the latter will be their Judge, and will condemn them to everlasting burnings, and pronounce the sentence on them; and the former will be the executioners of it; they will gather them out, and sever them from the righteous, and cast them into the furnace of fire, and will be spectators of their punishment, and rejoice at it; and the sight of their power and glory will increase the torment of the sufferers.

(q) Zohar in Gen. fol. 51. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Revelation 14:10. The καὶ αὐτός[3504] represents the details, as well as likewise the harlot herself, incurring the judgment.[3505]

πίεται (fut.). Winer, p. 84.

The οἶνος τοῦ θυμοῦ τ. θ. is represented in the ποτήριον τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτου; but the dreadful power of this wine of wrath is rendered conspicuous, since it is itself designated: τοῦ κεκερασμένου ἀκράτου. It is meant that in the cup of indignation there is found unmixed wine (ἀκρατος, Psalm 74:9, LXX.), i.e., not tempered with water, and hence that the wine of wrath, thus set forth, works with its entire force. The contradiction in the words occurring in the connection of κεκερασμ. and ἀκράτ. is without difficulty, because[3506] the custom of adapting the wine for ordinary use, by mixing it with water, has brought with it a usage of words in which the κερᾷν, without giving prominence to its special signification, attains the further sense of ἐγχέειν εἰς κέρας, διδόναι πιεῖν, etc.[3507] So Ewald: “I have drunken wine so prepared (mixed) as to be pure;” De Wette, Ebrard, etc. According to Züll., the ἀκράτου is regarded not as undiluted wine, but as designating the “compounded,” i.e., with additions, as spices, myrrh, opiates, etc., whereby the Orientals make their wine still stronger; and thus it is indicated that the Divine cup of indignation contains no wine but a pure mixture, “pure essence of mixtures.” Hengstenb. interprets artificially, in a still different way.

καὶ βασανισθήσονται. Cf. Revelation 9:5. The punishment of hell here described (ἐν πυρὶ κ. θείῳ, Revelation 9:17, Revelation 20:10) is not, with Grotius, to be resolved into pangs of conscience.

ἐνώπιον τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγ. κ. ἐν τ. ἀρνίον. Incorrectly, De Wette: According to the judgment. Rather, they suffer this their pain before the eyes of the holy angels, and of the Lamb despised and persecuted by the worshippers of the beast, which appears just on this account to render it the more bitter.[3508]

καὶ ὁ καπνὸς τοῦ βασανισμοῦ αὐτῶν, κ.τ.λ., according to Isaiah 34:10. Cf. Isaiah 19:3. It is to be observed, that in this passage βασανισμός is passive, in the sense of βάσανος. Cf., on the other hand, Isaiah 9:5.

ούκ ἔχουσιν ἀνάπαυσιν, κ.τ.λ., viz., in their βασανιαμός.[3509] The expression as Revelation 4:8.

καὶ εἴ τις λαμβ. With grave emphasis this expression, individualizing the general conception, οί προσκυνοῦντες, affirms that every one who in any way resigns himself to the beast[3510] incurs that eternal torment.

[3504] Cf. Revelation 14:17.

[3505] Cf. Ewald.

[3506] Cf. Wetst.

[3507] Revelation 18:6.

[3508] Cf. Revelation 11:12; Luke 16:23 sqq. Hengstenb.

[3509] Revelation 20:10.

[3510] De Wette.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Revelation 14:10. κεκερασμένου here as in Revelation 18:6 by oxymoron = “poured out,” the original meaning of “mixed” (with water) being dropped. The torture (depicted from Isaiah 34:9-10) is inflicted before the holy angels (who evidently sit as assessors at the judgment, En. Isaiah 48:9), ἁγίων being either an epitheton ornans or an allusion to Revelation 12:8-9. Normally the prophet refrains from introducing such spectators of doom (Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:10-14). “Fire is the divine cruelty of the Semitic religions” (Doughty), but the torment which Judaism designed for fallen angels and apostates is assigned here to the worshippers of the Cæsars. The Apocalypse is silent upon agents of torture; they are not the angels, much less the devil (who is himself punished, Revelation 20:10). But, like 4 Ezra 7 [ver. 36] (“the furnace of Gehenna shall be disclosed and over against it the paradise of delight”), John locates the place of torment over against the place of rest. For such grim popular fancies Enoch (xxvii. 2, 3, xlviii. 9, xc. 26, 27) is mainly responsible; there (as in Clem. Hom, xvii.) the tortures proceed under the eyes of the righteous, though (especially in the later fragments, as in John’s Apoc.) the moralisation of the idea has advanced, until Gehenna vanishes from the scene of bliss. “It is impossible for us to understand how such a sight could be compatible with heavenly happiness” (Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah, p. 344; cf. Lecky’s European Morals, ii. 225 f.), but the psychological basis of the ghastly expectation can be verified in the cruder types of primitive and modern religion. Most critics delete καὶ ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου as another gloss (cf. on Revelation 14:4); the position of Jesus after the angels is not unexampled (cf. Revelation 1:4-5), even if before the holy angels were not taken (Bs., Baljon) as a periphrasis for the divine presence (Luke 12:8-9; Luke 15:10).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. drink of the wine of the wrath of God] Psalm 75:8 (9); Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 25:15 sqq.

poured out without mixture] Lit. mixed unmixed: there is prob. nothing meant but the sense of the A. V., the “pouring out” of wine being usually a process of “mixing.” But the paradoxical form of expression comes from the LXX. of Psalm 75:8, where the word “red” (or perhaps “foaming,” “fiery”) is translated by “unmixed,” proving that St John knows and uses the LXX. version, though he corrects it when necessary.

with fire and brimstone] Perhaps rather in. See Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8.

in the presence, &c.] It is impossible to translate these words otherwise: they prove that the holy angels, and the Lamb Himself, acquiesce or something more in the justice and necessity of God’s awful judgements. This being so, we dare not give weight to sentimental or à priori arguments against their possibility, though to our present faculties God’s future treatment of sin may be as hard to reconcile with His known attributes as His permission of its origin in the past. We are forced to pass over the one difficulty: faith and humility will pass over the other.

Bengel's Gnomen

Revelation 14:10. Ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ θυμοῦ—ἐν τῷ ποτηρίῳ τῆς ὀργῆς, of the wine of wrath—in the cup of indignation) As the wine is to the cup, so is wrath to indignation. A designed difference of words: ch. Revelation 16:19, Revelation 19:15. ἡ ὀργὴ leads τὸν θυμὸν into action. Comp. Romans 2:8, note. חמה is θυμὸς, חרן ὀργὴ, in the LXX.—τοῦ κεκερασμένου ἀκράτου, which is poured in without mixture) κεράννυμι, I mix, is used generally for I pour in, even of unmixed wine.—ἄκρατον is unmixed, with which nought of grace or hope is blended. Such an unmixed potion is already mingled and prepared for the worshippers of the beast. There is at hand both a salvation, which awaits the saints, and a punishment, which overhangs the wicked. Psalms 75 (74):9, ποτήριον ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου οἴνου ἀκράτου, πλῆρες κεράσματος.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; he also... which is mingled unmixed (i.e. undiluted) in the cup of his anger (Revised Version). The warning is given to men while there is yet time; the fall of Babylon, which is prophetically spoken of as having taken place (ver. 8), being yet in the future; that is to say, at the end of the world. The language in which the retribution is couched corresponds to that in which the sin is described (see on ver. 8). The verb κεράννυμι, which originally signified "to mix," gradually came to signify "to pour," from the ancient custom of mixing spices, etc., as well as water, with the wine. The Authorized Version "poured out," therefore, is a correct translation. The pouring is in this case not accompanied by dilution with water; that is, God's wrath will not be tempered, but the wicked will feel the full force of his anger. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. The figure which is here used to portray the punishment of the wicked is common in the Bible. Isaiah 34:9, 10, cf. with Genesis 19:28, may supply the origin of the simile. The punishment is in the presence of the angels and of the Lamb; that is, probably, the purity and bliss of heaven is visible to the wicked, and the sight of it, combined with the knowledge of its in- accessibility to themselves, is part of their torment (cf. Luke 16:23). It is part of the wrath of God described in the first part of the verse. Revelation 14:10

Vincent's Word Studies

Poured out without mixture (κεκερασμένου ἀκράτου)

Lit., which is mingled unmixed. From the universal custom of mixing wine with water for drinking, the word mingle came to be used in the general sense of prepare by putting into the cup. Hence, to pour out.

Cup of His anger

Compare Psalm 75:8.

Brimstone (θείῳ)

Commonly taken as the neuter of θεῖος divine; that is, divine incense, since burning brimstone was regarded as having power to purify and to avert contagion. By others it is referred to θύω to burn, and hence to sacrifice.