The wine press was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.
Parallel Translations
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The wine press was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.
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and the wynefat was trodden with out the cite and bloud came oute of the fat even vnto the hors brydles by the space of a thowsande and.vi. C. furlonges.
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And the wine presse was troden without the citie, and blood came out of the wine presse, vnto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and sixe hundreth furlongs.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Revelation 14:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Lamentations 1:15 “The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
- Hebrews 13:11-12 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
- Isaiah 63:1-3 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who is this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is your clothing red, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? “I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.
- Revelation 19:14-21 The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, small and great.” I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army. The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.
- Isaiah 66:24 “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
- Revelation 11:8 Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
- Isaiah 34:5-7 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.
- Ezekiel 39:17-21 “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, “Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat meat and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You shall eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ “I will set my glory among the nations. Then all the nations will see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, it overflowed very deep, and very far…
That is, it overflowed very deep, and very far and wide: the speech is by hyperbole or excessive, to signify the greatness of the slaughter. And these be those pleasant fruits forsooth, of the contempt of Christ, and desiring of Antichrist rather than him, which the miserable, mad, and blind world doth at this time reap.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,…
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Ver. 20. And the winepress was trodden] viz. By Christ the King, with his heavenly horsemen, Rev 19:13-14.
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Without the city] i.e. Without the Church, haply in Judea, whither the pope being driven from Rome, shall fly and sit, till Christ shall unroost him with the brightness of his coming, 2Th 2:8.
Even unto the horse bridles] To confute the pride and cruelty of those bloody Papists that threatened to ride their horses up to the saddleskirts in the blood of the Lutherans. (Flac. Illyr.) So Famesius, Minerius, Felix of Wurtemburg, Sir Charles Ellerker, Charles IX of France, that cruel Queen, who when she saw some of her Protestant subjects lying dead, and stripped upon the earth, cried out, The goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld. These and the like shall be one day glutted with blood, which they have so barbarously thirsted after. Satia te sanguine, quem sitiisti, &c., Satisty with your blood which you were so thirsty for, as she said of Cyrus. (Justin, lib. i.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And the winepress was trodden without the city: by…
And the winepress was trodden without the city: by the city, Dr. More thinks Babylon is here meant, and that the meaning is, that the powerful convictions of the word before mentioned, shall not reach Babylon, the Romish hierarchy and polity, as being hardened against any such thing. But Mr. Mede and others think, that the city of Jerusalem is here meant, or the Holy Land, which comprehends exactly one thousand six hundred furlong, that is, two hundred Italian miles, or one hundred and sixty Grecian miles. But what that place shall be, where this slaughter shall be, is a great secret.
And blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs: it is plain it shall be a great slaughter, by the depth of the blood mentioned, and the length of the ground which it should to that depth overflow. It is very probable, that great battle is meant, mentioned Rev 19:20,21, in the place called Armageddon, upon the pouring out of the sixth vial, Rev 16:16. In so difficult a business nothing can be positively determined.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the winepress was trodden without the city,.... The…
And the winepress was trodden without the city,.... The beloved city, the new Jerusalem, into which none of the wicked will enter, and without which are dogs, &c. Rev 20:9. The allusion may be, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, to the olive presses, which were without the city of Jerusalem, from whence Gethsemane had its name, whither our Lord went, and where his sorrows began the night he was betrayed: hell is sometimes expressed by outer darkness, and said to be far off from heaven, and between the one and the other a great gulf is fixed, the distance is considerable; hence men are said to go forth to behold the miseries of the wicked; see Mat 22:13.
and blood came out of the winepress; alluding to the juice squeezed out of grapes, called the blood of grapes, Gen 49:11.
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Even unto the horses' bridles, for the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs; which is only an hyperbolical expression, setting forth the largeness and universality of the destruction of the wicked, and the impossibility of their escaping it. In like manner the Jews express a great slaughter of men; so of the slaughter at Bither, by Adrian, they say (e), they went on slaying , "until a horse plunged in blood up to his nostrils", and the blood ran four miles into the sea; which is not to be understood literally, but as expressing a prodigious effusion of blood: and as to
the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs, perhaps there may be an allusion to the measure of the land of Israel, and the common notion of it among the Jews, who make it to be the square of four hundred parsoe (f): hence they often speak of the land of Israel shaking and moving four hundred "parsoe", upon some extraordinary occasions (g); and a "parsa" contained four miles (h), so that four hundred "parsoe" made a thousand and six hundred miles; and if miles and furlongs are the same, in which sense only the land of Israel could be so large, here is the exact space; for Jerom (i), who was an inhabitant of it, says, it was scarce 160 miles in length, to which agrees R. Menachem (k); and it may be observed, that the Arabic version renders the words, "by the space of a thousand and six hundred miles". The Ethiopic version, very wrongly, reads, "sixteen furlongs".
(e) T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 69. 1. (f) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 28. 1. Gloss. in ib. (g) T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 3. 1. & Bava Kama, fol. 82. 2. & Menachot, fol. 64. 2. (h) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 92. 2. Gloss. in ib. (i) Ad Dardanum, fol. 22. 1. Tom. 3. (k) In Gen. fol. 60.
Next: Revelation Chapter 15
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And the winepress was trodden - By the Son…
And the winepress was trodden - By the Son of God, chap. xix, 15. Without the city - Jerusalem. They to whom St. John writes, when a man said, "The city," immediately understood this. And blood came out of the winepress, even to the horses' bridles - So deep at its first flowing from the winepress! One thousand six hundred furlongs - So far! at least two hundred miles, through the whole land of Palestine.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. Even unto the horse bridles] A hyperbolical…
Verse 20. Even unto the horse bridles] A hyperbolical expression, to denote a great effusion of blood. The Jews said, "When Hadrian besieged the city called Bitter, he slew so many that the horses waded in blood up to their mouths." The same kind of hyperbole with that above. See Wetstein on this verse.
The space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.] It is said that the state of the Church, or St. Peter's patrimony, extends from Rome to the Po, two hundred Italian miles, which make exactly one thousand six hundred furlongs! If this be really so, the coincidence is certainly surprising, and worthy of deep regard.
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On these two last verses pious Quesnel thus speaks: "As the favourable sickle of Jesus Christ reaps his wheat when ripe for heaven, so that of the executioners of his justice cuts off from this life the tares which are only fit for the fire of hell. Then shall the blood of Christ cease to be trampled on by sinners; and that of the wicked shall be eternally trodden down in hell, which is the winepress of the wrath of God.
"And the winepress was trodden without the city, eternally without the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, and far from the presence of God; eternally crushed and trodden down by his justice; eternally tormented in body and soul, without any hope either of living or dying! This is the miserable lot and portion of those who shall have despised the law of God, and died in impenitence. My God, pierce my heart with a salutary dread of thy judgments!"
Whatever these passages may mean, this is a prudent and Christian use of them.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And the wine-press was trodden without the city -…
And the wine-press was trodden without the city - The representation was made as if it were outside of the city - that is, the city of Jerusalem, for that is represented as the abode of the holy. The word “trodden” refers to the manner in which wine was usually prepared, by being trodden by the feet of people. See the notes on Isa 63:2. The wine-press was usually in the vineyard - not in the city - and this is the representation here. As appearing to the eye of John, it was not within the walls of any city, but standing without.
And blood came out of the wine-press - The representation is, that there would be a great destruction which would be well represented by the juice flowing from a wine-press.
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Even unto the horse bridles - Deep, as blood would be in a field of slaughter where it would come up to the very bridles of the horses. The idea is, that there would be a great slaughter.
By the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs - That is, two hundred miles; covering a space of two hundred miles square - a lake of blood. This is designed to represent a great slaughter; but why the space here employed to describe it was chosen is unknown. Some have supposed it was in allusion to the length of Palestine. Prof. Stuart supposes that it refers to the breadth of Italy, and that the allusion is to the attack made on the city of the beast. But it is impossible to determine why this space was chosen, and it is unnecessary. The idea is, that there would be a slaughter so great, as it were, as to produce a lake or sea of blood; that the enemies of the church would be completely and finally overthrown, and that the church, therefore, delivered from all its enemies, would be triumphant.
The “design” of this, as of the previous representations in this chapter, is to show that all the enemies of God will be destroyed, and that, therefore, the hearts of the friends of religion should be cheered and consoled in the trials and persecutions which were to come upon it. What could be better suited to sustain the church in the time of trial, than the assurance that every foe will be ultimately cut off? What is better suited to sustain the heart of the individual believer, than the assurance that all his foes will be quelled, and that he will ere long be safe in heaven?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain without the city--Jerusalem. The scene of the blood-shedding of…
without the city--Jerusalem. The scene of the blood-shedding of Christ and His people shall be also the scene of God's vengeance on the Antichristian foe. Compare the "horsemen," Rev 9:16-17.
blood--answering to the red wine. The slaughter of the apostates is what is here spoken of, not their eternal punishment.
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even unto the horse bridles--of the avenging "armies of heaven."
by the space of a thousand . . . six hundred furlongs--literally, "a thousand six hundred furlongs off" [W. KELLY]. Sixteen hundred is a square number; four by four by one hundred. The four quarters, north, south, east, and west, of the Holy Land, or else of the world (the completeness and universality of the world-wide destruction being hereby indicated). It does not exactly answer to the length of Palestine as given by JEROME, one hundred sixty Roman miles. BENGEL thinks the valley of Kedron, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, is meant, the torrent in that valley being about to be discolored with blood to the extent of sixteen hundred furlongs. This view accords with Joel's prophecy that the valley of Jehoshaphat is to be the scene of the overthrow of the Antichristian foes.
Next: Revelation Chapter 15
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. Without the city—As grapes and vintage are usually…
20. Without the city—As grapes and vintage are usually rural matters, so this symbolic picture, 14-20, reaches not to the complete downfall of the city, but to the adjacent slaughters. But what city? The bewildered Alford, with many others, replies Jerusalem! But throughout this whole chapter Jerusalem is the place of the menace, and Babylon is its object.
Even unto the horses’ bridles—The visional sky-horses waded in blood so deep that their bridles were visionally bathed in its crimson.
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A thousand and six hundred—The root of this number is the creational four, intimating that this battle is no local event, but world-wide. This view is intensified by the squaring of the four and the multiplying of that square, sixteen, by the square of ten, one hundred. This brief menacing cloud-picture of the coming contest predicts that the destruction from the city will spread over the earth; or rather, perhaps, indicates that the real city is itself earthwide in locality.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. the city] Probably Jerusalem, see on Rev_14:1.
20. the city] Probably Jerusalem, see on Rev_14:1.
blood] Isa_63:3.
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even unto the horse bridles] Literally, even unto the bridles of the horses—though no horses are mentioned in the context. Probably the A. V. is right—that it is meant as a mere measure, that any horseman riding there finds his horse bridle-deep in blood: but some think of the horsemen of God’s avenging army in Rev_19:14. There can hardly be a reference to the horses of chap. 6 or of Rev_9:17.
by the space of] Lit. from—perhaps best translated “from a distance of.”
a thousand and six hundred furlongs] 200 Roman miles, or about 183 English. It is hardly likely that it is meant, that the blood covered a space of 40 furlongs square—more probably, that it extended 1600 (or perhaps 800) in every direction from the city. It has been imagined that the distance specified stands for the length of Palestine, which is estimated by St Jerome at 160 Roman miles, by modern surveys at about 140 English.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And the wine press was trodden without the city.…
And the wine press was trodden without the city. "The city" is Jerusalem (cf. ver. 1), that is, the Church of God; the idea thus being either
(1) that the wicked are punished in a place apart from the just; (cf. Rev_22:15) or
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(2) that no unclean thing (e.g. the blood) can enter the city of the saints. (cf. Rev_21:27) And blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs; as far as sixteen hundred stadia. The Greek stadium is rather less than an English furlong, being about six hundred and six English feet; it was the length of the race course at Olympia, and the eighth part of the Roman mile. The "blood," of which the juice of the grape is a type, depicts the punishment inflicted. Horses seem to be mentioned by proleipsis, in anticipation of Rev_19:14. The description, of course, implies the terrific nature of the punishment probably nothing more. In the same way the distance mentioned is no doubt intended to denote the extensive nature of the punishment, though why that particular number is chosen is not absolutely clear. Possibly it is derived from the square of 4 multiplied by the square of 10; four being significant of the created world, (see on Rev_4:6) and ten being the sign of completeness; (see on Rev_13:1) the number thus portraying completeness as regards the created world, and the inability of any one to escape God"s judgment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 20. And the winepress was trodden without the city.…
20. And the winepress was trodden without the city. The city, whenever it is not shown to be a wicked city, is Jerusalem, the Apocalyptic symbol of the Church. These judgments are without the church, judgments upon the world. And blood came out of the winepress. This is what John saw. The pressed juice of the grapes ran out red like blood, and ran in a mighty stream, deep as the bridle bits of the horses, 1600 furlongs; about 200 miles. There has been much discussion concerning what this distance signifies. Some have cited the fact that Palestine is about 200 miles long, and held that a fearful carnage in that country is predicted. Others have noted the fact that Italy is about 200 miles wide, and held that this country is to be the scene of a terrible conflict. In my opinion, the whole is symbolic of the terrible judgments of the wicked in that day. The figures, 40x40, or 4x4, multiplied by 10x10, imply the universality of the judgment. The four quarters, the four winds, the four corners of the earth are often mentioned, and four is held to be an Apocalyptical symbol of the earth, while ten, like seven, is a perfect, or sacred number.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.