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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 7:2 - 7:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Ascend (anabainonta). Present active participle of anabainō, “ascending,” “going up,” picturing the process.
From the sun-rising (apo anatolēs hēliou). Same phrase in Rev 16:12. From the east, though why is not told. Swete suggests it is because Palestine is east of Patmos. The plural apo anatolōn occurs in Mat 2:1 without hēliou (sun).
The seal of the living God (sphragida theou zōntos). Here the signet ring, like that used by an Oriental monarch, to give validity to the official documents. The use of zōntos with theou accents the eternal life of God (Rev 1:18; Rev 10:6; Rev 15:7) as opposed to the ephemeral pagan gods.
To whom it was given (hois edothē autois). For edothē see Rev 6:2, Rev 6:4, etc. The repetition of autois in addition to hois (both dative) is a redundant Hebraism (in vernacular Koiné to some extent) often in the Apocalypse (Rev 3:8). The angels are here identified with the winds as the angels of the churches with the churches (Rev 1:20).
To hurt (adikēsai). First aorist active infinitive of adikeō, subject of edothē, common use of adikeō in this sense of to hurt in the Apocalypse (Rev 2:11; Rev 6:6 already), in Luk 10:19 also. The injury is to come by letting loose the winds, not by withholding them.