Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.
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Beholde I will caste her into a beed and them that commyt fornicacion with her into gret adversite excepte they tourne from their deades.
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Beholde, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit fornication with her, into great affliction, except they repent them of their workes.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Revelation 2:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Revelation 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality. Those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.”
- Ezekiel 16:37-41 therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated. I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into their hand, and they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places. They will strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels. They will leave you naked and bare. They will also bring up a company against you, and they will stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more.
- Luke 13:5 I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”
- Jeremiah 36:3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them; that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
- Ezekiel 18:30-32 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
- Revelation 18:3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
- Revelation 18:9 The kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning,
- Ezekiel 23:29 They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.
- Luke 13:3 I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.
- Ezekiel 33:11 Tell them, ‘ “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?” ’
- Zephaniah 3:7 I said, “Just fear me. Receive correction, so that her dwelling won’t be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her.” But they rose early and corrupted all their doings.
- 2 Timothy 2:25-26 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will.
- Revelation 19:18-21 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.
- Ezekiel 23:45-48 Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed. The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. “ ‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you.
- 2 Corinthians 12:21 that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed,…
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Ver. 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed] A bed of affliction for that bed of security upon which she had stretched herself, Amo 6:4. God hath his season, his harvest for judgment, Mat 13:30. Men may expect a time of healing when they shall find nothing else but a time of trouble, Jer 14:19. One may defer a sore till it be incurable. See Eze 24:13.
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 I will cast her into a bed; another kind…
I will cast her into a bed; another kind of bed than she hath sinned in and by, not a bed of ease and pleasure, but of pain and torment. Nor shall the seduced escape, they shall also be cast into
great tribulation, pains and torments of conscience, or afflictions more corporal, either from the more immediate hand of God, or the hands of men.
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Except they repent of their deeds; this is to be supposed to all God’s threatenings of judgments, the execution of them ordinarily may be prevented by repentance, and such is the patience of God, that he gives the vilest sinners a space to repent.
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 Behold, I will cast her into a bed,.... Of…
Behold, I will cast her into a bed,.... Of sickness and languishing; and which denotes the sickly, pining, and languishing state of the church of Rome, as a just retaliation for her bed of luxury and deliciousness, adultery and idolatry, she had indulged herself in; this was threatened, and was yet to come, and began at the time of the Reformation, signified by the next church state; and, ever since, the whore of Rome has been visibly sickening and decaying. The Alexandrian copy reads, "into a prison":
and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation: the kings of the earth, and their subjects, who have joined in the idolatries and corruptions of the Romish church, Rev 17:2, which may be understood either of that distress and uneasiness the Reformation in some countries gave them; or those outward troubles, wars, and desolations they have been since attended with, particularly the empire of Germany; which has been in great tribulation, formerly by the Turks, and of late by internal broils among themselves, and by the armies of other princes entering into it; or it may regard that eternal vengeance that will be recompensed to all such persons:
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except they repent of their deeds; their spiritual fornication or idolatry, and all the abominations the members of that apostate church are guilty of. There seems to be an allusion in this verse to Ahaziah and Joram, sons of Ahab and Jezebel, who followed their mother's idolatrous practices, and were cast upon a bed of sickness, Kg2 1:2.
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 I will cast her into a bed-into great affliction-and…
I will cast her into a bed-into great affliction-and them that commit either carnal or spiritual adultery with her, unless they repent - She had her time before. Of her works - Those to which she had enticed their and which she had committed with them. It is observable, the angel of the church at Thyatira was only blamed for suffering her. This fault ceased when God took vengeance on her. Therefore he is not expressly exhorted to repent, though it is implied.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 22. Behold, I will cast her into a…
Verse 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed] "This again alludes to the same history. Ahaziah, son of Ahab and Jezebel, by his mother's ill instruction and example, followed her ways. God punished him by making him fall down, as is supposed, from the top of the terrace over his house, and so to be bedridden for a long time under great anguish, designing thereby to give him time to repent; but when, instead of that, he sent to consult Baalzebub, Elijah was sent to pronounce a final doom against his impenitence. Thus the son of Jezebel, who had committed idolatry with and by her advice, was long cast into the bed of affliction, and not repenting, died: in the same manner his brother Jehoram succeeded likewise. All this while Jezebel had time and warning enough to repent; and though she did not prevail with Jehoram to continue in the idolatrous worship of Baal, yet she persisted in her own way, notwithstanding God's warnings. The sacred writer, therefore, here threatens the Gnostic Jezebel to make that wherein she delighteth, as adulterers in the bed of lust, to be the very place, occasion, and instrument, of her greatest torment. So in Isaiah, the bed is made a symbol of tribulation, and anguish of body and mind. See Isa 28:20; Job 33:19.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rev 2:22-23. Behold — I will at length execute…
Rev 2:22-23. Behold — I will at length execute judgment upon her, and let the process of my righteous vengeance be observed. I will cast her into a bed — Not of pleasure, but of great tribulation — I will severely punish these seducers for their evil principles and practices; and this punishment shall reach all who have been partakers in such acts of wickedness: and this threatening shall be accomplished as surely as the punishment was which the Prophet Elijah denounced in the name of the Lord against Jezebel, 1Ki 21:23. Except they repent, &c. — Except they be humbled for, and forsake their vile practices. And I will kill her children — I will slay those that presume to follow her in her wickedness; with death — An expression which denotes death by the plague, or by some manifest stroke of God’s hand. Probably the remarkable vengeance taken on these was the token of the certainty of all the rest. And all the churches — To which thou now writest; shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins — The desires; and hearts — Thoughts; and that though I am very long- suffering with respect to many sinners, and am unwilling immediately to come to extremities; yet I am not to be mocked and trifled with; and therefore they will learn to respect and honour the administration of my government; who, as I know the secrets of men’s hearts, so I will at length give unto every one of you according to your works — And according to those principles from which I know they have proceeded; and thus I will approve the perfect justice of my treatment of you all. It is observable, the angel of the church at Thyatira was only blamed for suffering such deceivers to seduce Christ’s servants. This fault ceased when God took vengeance on these seducers. Therefore he is not expressly exhorted to repent, though that is implied.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, I will cast her into a bed -…
Behold, I will cast her into a bed - Not into a bed of ease, but a bed of pain. There is evidently a purpose to contrast this with her former condition. The harlot’s bed and a sick-bed are thus brought together, as they are often, in fact, in the dispensations of Providence and the righteous judgments of God. One cannot be indulged without leading on, sooner or later, to the horrid sufferings of the other: and how soon no one knows.
And them that commit adultery with her - Those who are seduced by her doctrines into this sin; either they who commit it with her literally, or who are led into the same kind of life.
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Into great tribulation - Great suffering; disease of body or tortures of the soul. How often - how almost uniformly is this the case with those who thus live! Sooner or later, sorrow always comes upon the licentious; and God has evinced by some of his severest judgments, in forms of frightful disease, his displeasure at the violation of the laws of purity. There is no sin that produces a mere withering and desolating effect upon the soul than what is here referred to; none which is more certain to be followed with sorrow.
Except they repent of their deeds - It is only by repentance that we can avoid the consequences of sin. The word “repent” here evidently includes both sorrow for the past, and abandonment of the evil course of life.
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 Behold--calling attention to her awful doom to come.
Behold--calling attention to her awful doom to come.
I will--Greek present, "I cast her."
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a bed--The place of her sin shall be the place of her punishment. The bed of her sin shall be her bed of sickness and anguish. Perhaps a pestilence was about to be sent. Or the bed of the grave, and of the hell beyond, where the worm dieth not.
them that commit adultery with her--spiritually; including both the eating of idol-meats and fornication. "With her," in the Greek, implies participation with her in her adulteries, namely, by suffering her (Rev 2:20), or letting her alone, and so virtually encouraging her. Her punishment is distinct from theirs; she is to be cast into a bed, and her children to be killed; while those who make themselves partakers of her sin by tolerating her, are to be cast into great tribulation.
except they repent--Greek aorist, "repent" at once; shall have repented by the time limited in My purpose.
their deeds--Two of the oldest manuscripts and most ancient versions read "her." Thus, God's true servants, who by connivance, are incurring the guilt of her deeds, are distinguished from her. One oldest manuscript, ANDREAS, and CYPRIAN, support "their."
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 22. Behold—A challenge of attention to this threatened judgment;…
22. Behold—A challenge of attention to this threatened judgment; a judgment so clear and palpable as to strike all the Churches, Rev_2:23.
Cast her into a bed—Her bed of adulteries shall be exchanged for a bed of tribulation; a figurative bed of penalty for the literal bed of sin.
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 22. I will cast] lit. ‘I am casting’ i.e.…
22. I will cast] lit. ‘I am casting’ i.e. am about to cast. Cf. ‘I ascend’, Joh_20:17.
a bed] Perhaps of sickness, as “death” in the next v. is perhaps to be taken of pestilence: cf. Rev_6:8.
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with her] Possibly the sense is “I will cast them together with her into …,” but the sense “the partners of her adulteries” is at least equally natural. It seems probably intended, that she and they are to be separated in punishment: Francesca’s “Questi che mai da me non fia diviso” is rather a poetical sentiment than a moral one. But if Jezebel be understood to mean a sect rather than an individual woman, it will be possible to distinguish her “adulteries” as metaphorical from the literal “fornication” which she encouraged: if so, her paramours are the false teachers, her children their disciples.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (22) I will cast her into a bed.—The chamber…
(22) I will cast her into a bed.—The chamber of voluptuousness will become the chamber of sickness. The spot of the sin shall be the scene of punishment. (Comp. 1Ki_21:19.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Behold! The exclamation "arrests attention, and prepares the way…
Behold! The exclamation "arrests attention, and prepares the way for something unexpected and terrible." It is one of the many differences between the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse, that in the former ide is the dominant form, while in the latter idou is the invariable form; (kai ide in Rev_6:1, Rev_6:5, 7 is a spurious addition) idou is very rare in the Gospel; ide is found nowhere in the Apocalypse. In the Epistles neither form occurs. I do cast her into a bed. Ballw , not balw , is the true reading; the future has been substituted for the present to match the futures in ver. 23. Forbearance having failed, God tries severity; and, as so often in his dealings with man, the instrument of wrong doing is made the instrument of punishment. The bed of sin becomes a bed of suffering. Compare "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;" and "I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord". (1Ki_21:19 2Ki_9:26) Ballw is one of many words which has become weakened in meaning in late Greek: it often means no more than "place" or "put". (Joh_5:7 Joh_12:6 Joh_13:2 Joh_18:11 Joh_20:25) In the passive it is rather common of being laid up in sickness. (Mat_8:6, 14 9:2 Mar_7:30) But perhaps we should rather compare such expressions as "cast into prison, into the sea, into the fire, into Gehenna". (Mat_18:30 Mat_21:21 Mat_18:8, Mat_18:9) It may be doubted whether there is any significance in the fact that her sin is spoken of as porneina (ver. 21), whereas those who sin with her are said moiceuein . Idolatry is spoken of both as whoredom and as adultery. In the one case it is a contrast to the marriage tie between God and his faithful worshippers; in the other it is a violation of it. Jezebel anticipates the harlot of Revelation 17, as Balaam anticipates the false prophet of Re 13. The remarkable construction, "repent out of (metanohsai ek), is peculiar to this book (vers. 21, 22 Rev_9:20, 21 16:11; but in Act_8:22 we have metanohson apo , and in Heb_6:1 we have metanoia apo , compare the converse, metanoia eiv , Act_20:21) "Her works" is to be preferred to "their works." Authv might easily be changed to autwn , either accidentally, owing to the preceding ergwn , or deliberately, because it seems strange to talk of repenting from the works of another person. But the point is that those who have become partakers in her sins have abandoned their own works for hers; and it is therefore from her works that they are bidden to repent (compare "my works" in ver. 26).
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 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed.…
22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed. Sickness and a bed are symbols of affliction and punishment. Them that commit adultery with her. This is the term applied to idolatrous Israel (Jer. 3:9; Ezek. 16:32). To practice the idolatrous rites of this faction would be spiritual adultery.
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 I will throw her onto a sickbed ... into…
I will throw her onto a sickbed ... into great suffering
Her having to lie in bed would be the result of Jesus making her very sick. AT: "I will make her lie sick in bed ... I will make suffer greatly" or "I will make her very sick ... I will make suffer greatly" (See: Metonymy)
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those who commit adultery with her into great suffering
Jesus speaks of causing people to suffer as throwing them into suffering. AT: "I will make those who commit adultery with her to suffer greatly" (See: Metaphor)
commit adultery
"practice adultery"
unless they repent of her deeds
This implies that they have participated with her in her wicked behavior. By repenting of her deeds, they also repent of participating in her behavior. AT: "if they do not repent from doing the evil that she does" or "if they do not repent of participating in her deeds" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
I will strike her children dead
"I will kill her children"
her children
Jesus spoke of her followers as if they were her children. AT: 'her followers" or "the people who do what she teaches" (See: Metaphor)
thoughts and hearts
The term "heart" a metonym that represents feelings and desires. AT: "what people think and want" (See: Metonymy)
I will give to each one of you
This is an expression about punishment and reward. AT: "I will punish or reward each one of you" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
adultery
suffer
repent
die
church
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:22-23 Christ’s judgment on this “Jezebel” and her followers…
2:22-23 Christ’s judgment on this “Jezebel” and her followers comes in three stages: (1) Jezebel is on a bed of suffering; (2) her followers will suffer greatly; and (3) her children will die (cp. Acts 5:5, 10; 1 Cor 11:30). This judgment echoes the plagues on Egypt that ended with the deaths of Egypt’s firstborn sons (see Exod 12:29-30). • God sees thoughts and intentions (see Jer 17:10; Acts 1:24; Heb 4:12-13), and he gives whatever sentence people deserve (see Rev 22:12; Jer 17:10; Matt 16:27).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.