Apocalipse 14

BLIVRE · Chapter 14/22

1E eu olhei, e eis que o Cordeiro estava de pé sobre o monte Sião, e com ele cento e quarenta e quatro mil, tendo o nome do Pai dele escrito em suas testas.

2E eu ouvi uma voz do céu como voz de muitas águas, e como voz de um grande trovão; e ouvi uma voz de tocadores de harpas, que tocavam com suas harpas;

3E cantavam um cântico novo diante do trono, e diante dos quatro animais, e dos anciãos; e ninguém podia aprender aquele cântico, a não ser os cento e quarenta e quatro mil que tinham sido comprados da terra.

4Estes são os que não se contaminaram com mulheres, porque são virgens; estes são os que seguem ao Cordeiro onde quer que ele vá; estes foram comprados dentre os homens, [sendo] primícias para Deus e para o Cordeiro.

5E não foi encontrado engano na boca deles, porque eles são irrepreensíveis diante do trono de Deus.

6E eu vi outro anjo voando tendo o evangelho eterno, para proclamá-lo aos que habitam sobre a terra, e a toda nação, tribo, língua e povo;

7dizendo em alta voz: “Temei a Deus, e dai glória a ele; porque chegou a hora do seu julgamento; e adorai àquele que fez o céu, a terra, o mar e as fontes de águas.”

8E seguiu outro anjo, dizendo: “Ela caiu! Caiu a Babilônia, a grande cidade, porque ela deu de beber a todas as nações do vinho da ira de seu pecado sexual.”

9E o terceiro anjo os seguiu, dizendo em alta voz: “Se alguém adora a besta e a sua imagem, e recebe a marca [dela] sobre sua testa, ou sobre sua mão,

10também o tal beberá do vinho da ira de Deus, que foi posto sem mistura no cálice de sua ira; e será atormentado com fogo e enxofre, diante dos santos anjos e diante do Cordeiro.

11E a fumaça do tormento deles sobe para todo o sempre; e não têm descanso de dia nem de noite os que adoram a besta e a sua imagem, e se alguém recebe a marca de seu nome.

12Aqui está a paciência dos santos; aqui [estão] os que guardam os mandamentos de Deus e a fé em Jesus.”

13E eu ouvi uma voz do céu, que me dizia: Escreve: “Benditos são os mortos que morrem no Senhor a partir de agora; sim, diz o Espírito, para que se descansem de seus trabalhos; e suas obras os seguem.”

14E eu olhei, e eis uma nuvem branca, e um semelhante a um filho do homem, sentado sobre a nuvem; tendo sobre sua cabeça uma coroa de ouro, e em sua mão uma foice afiada.

15E outro anjo saiu do templo, clamando em alta voz ao que estava sentado sobre a nuvem: “Envia a tua foice, e ceifa; pois chegou a ti a hora de ceifar, porque a plantação da terra [já] está madura.”

16E aquele que está sentado sobre a nuvem lançou sua foice na terra, e a terra foi ceifada.

17E outro anjo saiu do templo que está no céu, o qual também tinha uma foice afiada.

18E outro anjo, que tinha poder sobre o fogo, saiu do altar; e ele clamou em alta voz ao que tinha a foice afiada, dizendo: “Envia a tua foice afiada, e recolhe os cachos da vinha da terra; porque suas uvas [já] estão maduras.”

19E o anjo lançou sua foice à terra, e recolheu [as uvas] da vinha da terra, e [as] lançou na prensa da grande ira de Deus.

20E a prensa foi pisada fora da cidade, e saiu sangue da prensa até os freios dos cavalos, por mil e seiscentos estádios.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The Lamb appears on Mount Zion with the 144,000 who are sealed, singing a new song, while three angels successively proclaim the eternal gospel, the fall of Babylon, and a warning against worshiping the beast. The chapter ends with two symbolic harvests, one of grain and one of grapes, representing final judgment.

Explanation

This chapter functions as a direct counterpoint to chapter 13: while the beast demands worship through a mark and force, the Lamb voluntarily gathers his faithful followers, marked with God's name, showing two opposing and mutually exclusive loyalties. The three angels announcing successive messages — the eternal gospel for every nation, the fall of 'Babylon' (a symbol of corrupt and oppressive world systems), and the warning about the consequences of worshiping the beast — summarize the entire moral message of the book in miniature. The image of the grape harvest trampled 'in the great winepress of the wrath of God,' with blood rising to the horses' bridles, uses extreme apocalyptic hyperbole to convey the absolute seriousness of the final judgment against persistent injustice. Today's application is that, faced with social pressure to conform to evil, the faithful are called to persevere in loyalty to God, whatever the cost.

Fun facts

  • The term 'Babylon' used here and in later chapters (14:8) does not refer to the historic city, which had already ceased to exist as a power centuries earlier, but was a common code name among first-century Jews and Christians for Rome, the oppressive empire of the time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipse 14:1In direct contrast with the mark of the beast from the previous chapter, the Lamb appears with the 144,000 (already introduced in chapter 7) marked on the forehead with His name and the Father's, not with the number of the beast.
  2. Apocalipse 14:2The voice from heaven, compared to many waters and to a great thunder, but also described as the sound of harpers, mixes overwhelming force with musical beauty in the same scene.
  3. Apocalipse 14:3Only those who had lived through the same experience as the hundred and forty-four thousand could understand that song, a way of describing a testimony so specific that it cannot simply be repeated without having lived it.
  4. Apocalipse 14:4This passage is usually read symbolically, as purity and faithfulness, avoiding a kind of spiritual unfaithfulness with idols, rather than as a literal requirement about marital status. Christian traditions disagree on how literally to take this image.
  5. Apocalipse 14:5This describes the character of this group with two qualities: complete sincerity (“in their mouth was found no guile”) and blameless conduct before God.
  6. Apocalipse 14:6An angel appears announcing an “everlasting gospel” to every nation, tongue, and people - a universal message, unlike the geographic limits of the earlier plagues.
  7. Apocalipse 14:7The content of this message is direct: fear God, give Him glory, because the hour of judgment has come; the description of God as creator of heaven, earth, sea, and springs of water echoes the language used in the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20.
  8. Apocalipse 14:8This is the first mention of ‘Babylon’ as a nickname, explained in more detail later in chapters 17 and 18, for a great, corrupt city that seduces the nations. The earliest Jewish readers already associated this name with the empire that had destroyed the temple in Jerusalem centuries before.
  9. Apocalipse 14:9A third angel follows with an even more serious warning, directed specifically at those who worship the beast and receive its mark.
  10. Apocalipse 14:10The pairing of fire and brimstone echoes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, becoming the Bible's standard image for describing divine judgment.
  11. Apocalipse 14:11This describes the consequence of that act as a torment without end and without rest, a direct contrast with the rest promised to the faithful a few verses later.
  12. Apocalipse 14:12This repeats almost the same expression used in chapter 13 about the patience of the saints, now linking that perseverance to obedience to God's commandments and to faith in Jesus.
  13. Apocalipse 14:13A voice from heaven declares blessed those who die “in the Lord” from that moment on, promising rest from the struggles described in the previous chapters.
  14. Apocalipse 14:14The title Son of man, used here with authority, comes from the vision in Daniel 7. The sickle uses the image of the harvest, the natural marker of the end of an agricultural cycle, to describe a moment of reckoning.
  15. Apocalipse 14:15An angel coming out of the heavenly temple orders the harvest to begin, using the agricultural image of a ripe crop to describe the right moment for judgment.
  16. Apocalipse 14:16The command from the previous verse is carried out at once: the sickle is thrust in and the earth is reaped.
  17. Apocalipse 14:17This introduces another angel, also with a sharp sickle, coming out of the same heavenly temple, setting up the second harvest scene that follows.
  18. Apocalipse 14:18An angel connected to the fire of the altar (perhaps the same altar mentioned in earlier chapters) calls for the harvest of grapes, an image separate from the grain harvest, usually read as a specific scene of judgment against those who oppose God.
  19. Apocalipse 14:19The winepress was where grapes were trodden to become wine, and here it becomes a violent image of judgment. The exaggerated scale - blood rising high and stretching a thousand and six hundred furlongs - is typical of apocalyptic literature, which uses extreme numbers for emphasis, not a literal geographic measurement.
  20. Apocalipse 14:20The exaggerated scale - blood rising up to the horses' bridles over a huge distance - is typical of apocalyptic language, which uses extreme numbers to convey the seriousness of a judgment, not a literal geographic measurement.

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