Revelation 20:14

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14, 15) And death and hell were cast . . .—Better, And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. The latter part of the verse contains, according to the best MS. authority, the additional words “the lake of fire.” We then read, not “This is the second death”—as though the reference were to what went before—but, This is the second death, the lake of fire. The last verse then follows, And if any was not found written in the book (or, roll) of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. Thus, three times in these two short verses, like a refrain at the close of each clause, we have the terrible words “the lake of fire.” Into this lake of fire Death and Hades are thrown. It is clearly figurative language, implying that Death, the last enemy (1Corinthians 15:26) is destroyed, together with Hades, who was personified as Death’s escort (Revelation 6:8). So we read in the next chapter (Revelation 21:4) “there shall be no more death.” The lake of fire into which Death is thrown is the second death! We have read of this before in this book (Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6). It is a death of which the first death—the physical death, now destroyed—was but a faint figure. It is a condition which needs no coarse exaggeration, or vulgar literalisation of the prophetic imagery, to heighten the horror of. Very awful is that spiritual death, which knows not and loves not God, and from which Christ has come to arouse us; more awful must be that second death, in which the spirit, no longer the sinning victim of hereditary evil, has become the victim of habitual choice of wrong, loving darkness rather than light, and choosing alienation rather than reconciliation—the husks of the swine rather than the Father’s house. Of the full meaning of the words in their true and future force we can have little conception. It is enough for us to remember two things: they are figurative, but they are figurative of something.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:11-15 After the events just foretold, the end will speedily come; and there is no mention of any thing else, before the appearing of Christ to judge the world. This will be the great day: the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, will then put on majesty and terror. The persons to be judged are the dead, small and great; young and old, low and high, poor and rich. None are so mean, but they have some talents to account for; and none so great, as to avoid having to account for them. Not only those alive at the coming of Christ, but all the dead. There is a book of remembrance both for good and bad: and the book of the sinner's conscience, though formerly secret, will then be opened. Every man will recollect all his past actions, though he had long forgotten many of them. Another book shall be opened, the book of the Scriptures, the rule of life; it represents the Lord's knowledge of his people, and his declaring their repentance, faith, and good works; showing the blessings of the new covenant. By their works men shall be justified or condemned; he will try their principles by their practices. Those justified and acquitted by the gospel, shall be justified and acquitted by the Judge, and shall enter into eternal life, having nothing more to fear from death, or hell, or wicked men; for these are all destroyed together. This is the second death; it is the final separation of sinners from God. Let it be our great concern to see whether our Bibles justify or condemn us now; for Christ will judge the secrets of all men according to the gospel. Who shall dwell with devouring flames?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire - Death and Hades (hell) are here personified, as they are in the previous verse. The declaration is equivalent to the statement in 1 Corinthians 15:26; "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." See the notes on that passage. The idea is, that death, considered as the separation of soul and body, with all the attendant woes, will exist no more. The righteous will live forever, and the wicked will linger on in a state never to be terminated by death. The reign of Death and Hades, as such, would come to an end, and a new order of things would commence where this would be unknown. There might be what would be properly called death, but it would not be death in this form; the soul would live forever, but it would not be in that condition represented by the word ᾅδης hadēs - "hades." There would be "death" still, but a "second death differs from the first, in the fact that it is not a separation of the soul and body, but a state of "continual agony" like what the first death inflicts - like that in intensity, but not in kind" (Prof. Stuart).

This is the second death - That is, this whole process here described - the condemnation, and the final death and ruin of those whose names are "not found written in the book of life" - properly constitutes the second death. This proves that when it is said that "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire," it cannot be meant that all punishment will cease forever, and that all will be saved, for the writer goes on to describe what he calls "the second death" as still existing. See Revelation 20:15. John describes this as the second death, not because it in all respects resembles the first death, but because it has so many points of resemblance that it may be properly called "death." Death, in any form, is the penalty of law; it is attended with pain; it cuts off from hope, from friends, from enjoyment; it subjects him who dies to a much-dreaded condition, and in all these respects it was proper to call the final condition of the wicked "death" - though it would still be true that the soul would live. There is no evidence that John meant to affirm that the second death would imply an extinction of "existence." Death never does that; the word does not naturally and properly convey that idea.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. Death and Hades, as personified representatives of the enemies of Christ' and His Church, are said to be cast into the lake of fire to express the truth that Christ and His people shall never more die, or be in the state of disembodied spirits.

This is the second death—"the lake of fire" is added in A, B, and Andreas. English Version, which omits the clause, rests on inferior manuscripts. In hell the ancient form of death, which was one of the enemies destroyed by Christ, shall not continue, but a death of a far different kind reigns there, "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord": an abiding testimony of the victory of Christ.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And death and hell were cast into lake of fire; there shall be no more natural death, nor any more separate state of souls, (so adhv signifies), they shall all be swallowed up in the issue of the last judgment, where some shall go into life, some into eternal condemnation. Dr. More expoundeth it of the whole region of mortality being set on fire at the last thunder.

This, as to the wicked of the earth, is the second death, mentioned Revelation 2:11.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,.... Death cannot be taken properly, nor hell be the place of torment, for devils and damned spirits; since that is that lake of fire, for then the sense would be, hell is cast into hell; but either by these the devil is meant, who has the power of death, and is the prince of hell, were it not that the casting of him into this lake is mentioned before in Revelation 20:10 or it denotes the destruction and abolition of death and the grave, that from henceforth they should no more have power over men, nor have any under their dominion, and in their hands; and so what has been promised will now be fully performed, Hosea 13:14 see Revelation 21:4 or rather the wicked dead, which they shall have delivered up, and will be judged and sentenced to eternal death, Revelation 20:13

this is the second death; or the destruction of the soul and body in hell, which will consist in an eternal separation of both from God, and in a continual sense of his wrath and displeasure. The Alexandrian copy and the Complutensian edition read, "this second death is the lake of fire"; and so the Arabic version, "and this is the second death, even the lake of fire"; and not much different is the Ethiopic version, "the second death, which is the fire of hell".

Geneva Study Bible

{26} And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

(26) The last enemy which is death shall be abolished by Christ

(that he may no more make any attempt against us) 1Co 15:16 and death shall feed on the reprobate in hell for evermore, according to the righteous judgment of God, in the next verse Re 20:15.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Death as Sin’s ally must be destroyed along with Sin, while Hades, the grim receptacle of Death’s prey (the intermediate rendezvous for the dead, except for martyrs, cf. Revelation 6:10), naturally ceases to have any function. This was the cherished hope of early Christianity as of Judaism (Isaiah 25:8). John’s idea of the second death is much more realistic and severe than the Hellenic or the Philonic (cf. de Proem, et Poen. §12, etc.).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. And death and hell were cast &c.] They are enemies of God, 1 Corinthians 15:26, and to be destroyed at Christ’s triumph, ib. 54. But though no doubt presented to St John as individual demon figures (see Revelation 6:8), we are probably not to understand that they are real persons, like the Devil and those represented by the Beast and the False Prophet: and hence we are not told that, like them, they continue to exist in torment in the lake of fire.

This is the second death] Add, the Lake of Fire. We have learnt already, that temporal death does not hinder eternal life, nay, may secure a better and an earlier resurrection thereto. We now learn the opposite doctrine, that there is a resurrection not to life, but to a death far more terrible than that which ends this life. Cf. St John 5:29. It is quite true, however, that both in popular Jewish belief, and in the language of the N. T., when the Resurrection is spoken of, it is ordinarily conceived as one to life. This does not prevent the more terrible side of the doctrine from being also taught in the Gospel, but it does indicate which side is the healthier, as well as the pleasanter, for our thoughts to dwell on.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire; death and Hades (see on ver. 13). Lake of fire (see on ver. 10). This is described in accordance with St. Paul's teaching. "The last enemy that shall be abolished is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26, Revised Version). Death and Hades, though in reality abstractions, are here personified. This is the second death. Add [even] the lake of fire. St. John has not used the phrase, "the first death," but he has alluded to the fact. The first death is the actual death of the body, and which is the natural result of that spiritually dead state into which, since the Fall, man is horn, and which is therefore, as it were, his normal state. In a similar manner, the first resurrection is the risen spiritual life of conversion; while the second resurrection is the resurrection of all men, and the bestowal of eternal life upon the just. Revelation 20:14

Vincent's Word Studies

This is the second death

Add even the lake of fire.