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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 15:3 - 15:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_15:3-4
3b"Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed."
▣ "Great and marvelous are Your works" This is a composite allusion to Psa_40:5; Psa_92:5; Psa_111:2; Psa_139:14 and Hos_14:9.
▣ "O Lord God, the Almighty" This is an allusion to the three most used OT titles for God (cf. Rev_1:8; Rev_4:8; Rev_11:7; Rev_16:7).
1. "Lord" refers to YHWH, the Savior, Redeemer, Covenant God.
2. "God" refers to Elohim, the Creator, Provider and Sustainer of all life on earth.
3. The "Almighty" refers to El Shaddai, the Patriarchal name for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (cf. Exo_6:3).
See hyperlink at Rev_1:8.
▣ "Righteous and true are Your ways" In the midst of the suffering of the saints, this emphasis is tremendously important (cf. Rev_16:7). This may be an allusion to Hos_14:9.
NASB, NRSV,
TEV, NJB "Thou King of the Nations"
NKJV "O King of the saints"
There are three different translations of this verse available in modern English.
1. "King of the ages" (ASV, NIV, REB) which is found in the ancient Greek MSS P47, à cf8i*,2, and C (cf. 1Ti_1:17; I Enoch 9:4)
2. "King of the nations" (NRSV, TEV, NJB) which is found in MSS à a, A, P, and most minuscules (cf. Rev_15:4; Jer_10:7)
3. "King of the saints" (NKJV) MSS 296, 2049 (Metzter, Textual Commentary, p. 753) which comes from a misunderstanding of a late Latin text
Option #2 is probably the original. UBS4 gives it a "B" rating (almost certain).
Rev_15:4 "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name" This is the transcendent Holy One of creation (cf. Rev_14:7; Jer_10:7-10). Yet He offers salvation to any and all who will fear Him and glorify His name.
▣ "For all the nations will come and worship before You" In OT prophecy all the nations will one day flow into Jerusalem (cf. Psa_22:27; Psa_66:4; Psa_86:9; Isa_2:2-4; Isa_19:19-24; Isa_27:13; Isa_56:7; Isa_66:19-24; Mal_1:11). John is using OT prophecy and imagery to describe a universal salvation. Jerusalem of the OT has become the heavenly Jerusalem of believing Jews and Gentiles. This book does not focus on Jews versus Gentiles as the OT did, but on believers versus unbelievers (compare Isa_45:23 with Php_2:9-11). See Crucial Introduction at the beginning of the commentary.