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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 7:1 - 7:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
After this (meta touto). Instead of the seventh seal (Rev 8:1) being opened, two other episodes or preliminary visions occupy chapter 7 (the sealing of the servants of God Rev 7:1-8 and the vision of the redeemed before the throne Rev 7:9-17).
Standing (hestōtas). Second perfect predicate participle of histēmi, intransitive and followed by epi and the accusative case gōnias as already in Rev 3:20 (epi thurian) and often again (Rev 8:3 some MSS., others genitive; Rev 11:11; Rev 13:1; Rev 14:1; Rev 15:2), but note epi with genitive thalassēs in the next clause, like epi kephalēs in Rev 12:1; Rev 7:3.
Corners (gōnias). Old word for angle (Mat 6:5), also in Rev 20:8.
Holding (kratountas). Present active participle of krateō, to hold fast (Mar 7:3; Joh 20:23). The four winds (cf. Mat 24:31) are held prisoner by angels at each of the four corners. Some Jews held the winds from due north, south, east, west to be favourable, while those from the angles (see Act 27:14) were unfavourable (Charles). There is an angel of the fire (Rev 14:18) and an angel of the waters (Rev 16:5).
That no wind should blow (hina mē pneēi anemos). Negative purpose clause with hina mē and the present active subjunctive, “lest a wind keep on blowing.”
Upon any tree (epi pan dendron). Accusative case here with epi rather than the preceding genitives (gēs, thalassēs), “upon the land or upon the sea,” but “against any tree” (picture of attack on the tree like a tornado’s path).