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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 6:17 - 6:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The great day (hē hēmera hē megalē). The phrase occurs in the O.T. prophets (Joe 2:11, Joe 2:31; Zep 1:14. Cf. Jud 1:6) and is here combined with “of their wrath” (tēs orgēs autōn) as in Zep 1:15, Zep 1:18; Zep 2:3; Rom 2:5. “Their” (autōn) means the wrath of God and of the Lamb put here on an equality as in Rev 1:17., Rev 22:3, Rev 22:13; 1Th 3:11; 2Th 2:16. Beckwith holds that this language about the great day having come “is the mistaken cry of men in terror caused by the portents which are bursting upon them.” There is something, to be sure, to be said for this view which denies that John commits himself to the position that this is the end of the ages.
And who is able to stand? (kai tis dunatai stathēnai̇). Very much like the words in Nah 1:6; Mal 3:2. First aorist passive infinitive of histēmi. It is a rhetorical question, apparently by the frightened crowds of Rev 6:15. Swete observes that the only possible answer to that cry is the command of Jesus in Luk 21:36 : “Keep awake on every occasion, praying that ye may get strength to stand (stathēnai, the very form) before the Son of Man.”