Revelation 9:6
◄  Revelation 9:6  ►
New International Version (©2011)
During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

New Living Translation (©2007)
In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!

English Standard Version (©2001)
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

International Standard Version (©2012)
In those days people will seek death, but never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

NET Bible (©2006)
In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it, and they will long to die and death will flee from them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
At that time people will look for death and never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

American King James Version
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

American Standard Version
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it: and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them.

Darby Bible Translation
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall in no way find it; and shall desire to die, and death flees from them.

English Revised Version
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.

Webster's Bible Translation
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Weymouth New Testament
And at that time people will seek death, but will by no possibility find it, and will long to die, but death evades them.

World English Bible
In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Young's Literal Translation
and in those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee from them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-12 Upon sounding the fifth trumpet, a star fell from heaven to the earth. Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ. On the opening of the bottomless pit, there arose a great smoke. The devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, by putting out light and knowledge, and promoting ignorance and error. Out of this smoke there came a swarm of locusts, emblems of the devil's agents, who promote superstition, idolatry, error, and cruelty. The trees and the grass, the true believers, whether young or more advanced, should be untouched. But a secret poison and infection in the soul, should rob many others of purity, and afterwards of peace. The locusts had no power to hurt those who had the seal of God. God's all-powerful, distinguishing grace will keep his people from total and final apostacy. The power is limited to a short season; but it would be very sharp. In such events the faithful share the common calamity, but from the pestilence of error they might and would be safe. We collect from Scripture, that such errors were to try and prove the Christians, 1Co 11:19. And early writers plainly refer this to the first great host of corrupters who overspread the Christian church.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them; shall in no wise find it... and death fleeth from them (Revised Version); οἱ ἄνθρωποι, "the men;" that is, the unsealed, who suffer this judgment. This is a characteristic biblical method of expressing great anguish. Thus Job 3:20, 21, "The bitter in soul; which long for death, but it cometh not" (cf. also Jeremiah 8:3; Job 7:15; Luke 23:30; and Revelation 6:16). The description portrays great anguish of mind, and should not be pressed to a literal interpretation, though many have illustrated the passage by pointing to actual occurrences of the kind.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in those days men shall seek death,.... Or desire to die, as Job did:

and shall not find it; or shall not die:

and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jeremiah 8:3. The ravages of the Saracens, their incursions, and the invasions by them, struck such terror into the inhabitants of divers parts of the empire, that they made death more eligible to them than life.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. shall desire—Greek, "eagerly desire"; set their mind on.

shall flee—So B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read. But A and Aleph read, "fleeth," namely continually. In Re 6:16, which is at a later stage of God's judgments, the ungodly seek annihilation, not from the torment of their suffering, but from fear of the face of the Lamb before whom they have to stand.

Revelation 9:6 Parallel Commentaries

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The Fifth Trumpet
…5And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strikes a man. 6And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 7And the shapes of the locusts were like to horses prepared to battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. …

Job 3:21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
Job 7:15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
Jeremiah 8:3 Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty.'
Revelation 6:16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!