After these things I heard as a loud voice of a great multitude in the heaven, saying, Hallelujah the salvation and the glory and the power of our God
Two chapters of Revelation have just described the fall of Babylon, the corrupt system that ruined the earth. Earth's merchants and kings have wept over her. Chapter 19 now looks up. The same event that empties the earth of song fills heaven with it, and heaven's word for it appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
The opening phrase marks order, and the order matters. One writer explains why: the true bride cannot appear while a counterfeit holds her place.
It is clear that as long as Babylon was left unjudged, the true bride could not be brought out and shown in her beauty and crowning robes. She stays hidden in Heaven until the one who has seized her place on earth is destroyed and put out of sight. The harlot and the bride cannot exist side by side… Her presence on earth had always been the main thing blocking the display of the glory of God, and an offence to Heaven as well. Now, though, Babylon is wiped out completely. That makes room and opens the way for the Lord God to be openly acknowledged on His throne, and for the Lamb to take His bride — the two great subjects of praise.
The shout itself is a Hebrew word, and it has a long history in Israel's songs.
This beautiful Hebrew word appears four times in these songs of praise (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6), and nowhere else in the New Testament. It is a common word in the book of Psalms. It opens and closes each of the last five psalms — psalms which, taken together, express the praise Israel will bring in the millennial kingdom. Hallelujah means "Praise the Lord," or "Jah," a shortened form of Jehovah.
That note does not stay in heaven. One writer looks ahead to the day it spreads:
What a day that will be! Hallelujah will first echo through the whole of heaven (Rev. 19:1, 3-4, 6). Then earth will take up that joyful note, and everything that has breath will praise Him.
Where the ESV has "a great multitude," older translations read "much people" — and one writer sets earth's crowd beside heaven's.
Nothing marks God's hatred of counterfeits in the things of Christ more solemnly than this repeated joy over the judgment of the corrupt system. That system takes the name of the Lamb's wife while contradicting her character. Much people on earth think only of their own imagined interests, and they weep over her fall. "Much people in heaven," mindful of Christ's glory, give praise to God for avenging the blood of His servants and judging the corrupter of the world.
Three things are named, and each had been claimed by the system just destroyed.
Babylon had claimed that salvation was found only in her false system. She had taken glory and power to herself. As we read, "She has glorified herself," and said in her heart, "I sit a queen." Heaven, with one voice, ascribes "salvation," "glory," and "power" to God.
Each of the three words carries its own weight here:
The first of the three terms means deliverance. The second means God's moral glory in judgment. The third means His might shown in carrying out the judgment on the harlot. This praise is given to "our God."
Who makes up this crowd? One writer marks them off from the elders and from the church already taken up to heaven, and points to what they have been through:
In Revelation 19, for the first time, I find a reason for praise given by someone other than the elders — other than the body of saints, the church called up on high. Here it makes sense, because they praise God for judgments He has carried out, judgments in which they are avenged… They have suffered, and they are in the place to celebrate the avenging of the blood of God's servants.
Can a believer praise God when judgment falls? One writer answers by separating that day from this one.
However evil men may be in this day of salvation, it hardly suits a saint to shout "Hallelujah" when he sees judgment fall on anyone. But here we are looking at the day of judgment. We are to praise God's acts of judgment then as much as we praise His acts of grace now.
- Timing. The false woman must go before the true bride appears; heaven sings the moment God removes her.
- Word. "Hallelujah" means "Praise the Lord" — a Psalm word, found in the New Testament only in this chapter, and sounded four times.
- Reversal. Salvation, glory and power were exactly what Babylon claimed for herself; heaven hands all three back to God.
- Contrast. A great crowd on earth weeps over her fall; a great crowd in heaven praises God — one event, opposite hearts.
- Reach. The note starts in heaven and spreads to earth, until everything that breathes praises Him.
for true and righteous [are] his judgments; for he has judged the great harlot which corrupted the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his bondmen at her hand.
Heaven has just watched Babylon fall, and now a great crowd sings the reason: God's judgments are true and just. The verse brings two charges against the great prostitute — the great harlot in older translations — and raises the question of who she is and whose blood God is avenging.
This praise is aimed at God's judgments, not at His ways in general. The same word pair appears twice earlier in the book, and commentators note that the order changes with the subject in view.
The ground of their triumph is next stated. "For true and righteous are His judgments." In chapter 15:3 the harpers on the sea of glass sing "Righteous and true are Your ways"; while in Revelation 16:7 the altar says "True and righteous are Your judgments." In the first, God's ways are in view. In the second, and in our verse too, the subject is God's judgment on His enemies. Scripture teaches a basic truth, and we must hold it firmly: all God's dealings with His creatures are marked by truth and righteousness, in grace and in judgment alike. Now the judgment of the "great harlot" puts these essential attributes of God on open display. Her two great sins are named once again, and for the last time.
Calling a verdict "true and righteous" only means something if there is a standard it could fail. Human verdicts fail it.
Men's judgments are never fully true or righteous in themselves, because selfish motives can never be completely shut out of them. What men's judgments are not, God's judgments are. The great harlot had corrupted the earth, and heaven's pure and holy judgment had fallen upon her.
Commentators read this Babylon as a false church, not as the ancient city.
Babylon was the false church as long as the church was in question. When churches were no longer there, she became the final corrupter, and God's closing testimony of judgment on the world came out. There was an unclean form of open heathenism, in connection with the Jews in times past. Then it was the literal Babylon, of course; here it is symbolic.
The first charge is corrupting the earth. Scott says she morally blighted and ruined the whole scene, "where once the truth was known and God worshipped." Heaven's reaction to her fall is the opposite of earth's.
Nothing marks God's hatred of counterfeits in the things of Christ more strongly than this repeated joy over the judgment of the corrupt system. That system takes the name of the Lamb's wife while contradicting her character. Many people on earth are mourning her fall, thinking only of their own imagined interests. But "much people in heaven," mindful of Christ's glory, are praising God for avenging the blood of His servants and judging the corrupter of the world.
The second charge is blood. Earth mourns her fall, but heaven is called to rejoice.
Heaven does not share the mourning. There the call is to rejoice together with apostles and prophets, for this is God's answer to the cries of His oppressed people. In righteousness He avenges His beloved saints: He destroys without mercy this harlot who destroyed others.
Scott traces that cry back further than this book's martyrs. It is the cry "of the martyred band, from Abel downward."
Who is this crowd? Dennett rules out two groups before naming a third.
It is an interesting question who these are that, with "a great voice," raise this song of praise. They clearly form a group outside the twenty-four elders, and they are just as clearly not angels. So the conclusion is that they are those who were martyred on earth after the church was taken away, and who have been called up on high. They celebrate their God because of the character of His judgments. Those judgments are "true and righteous," as seen in the destruction of the great corrupter of the earth, and in avenging the blood of His servants at her hand.
- True — heaven praises God's judgments, not only His ways. Human verdicts always carry some selfish element. God's judgments never do.
- Righteous — truth and righteousness mark every dealing of God, in grace and in judgment. Her fall puts both on public display.
- Corrupted — the first charge is corrupting the earth. A counterfeit wore the name of Christ's bride and contradicted her character.
- Avenged — the second charge is blood. Here God answers the cry of the martyrs, a cry that reaches back to Abel.
- Divided — earth mourns Babylon and heaven sings over her. One event: loss on earth, and God's answer to His oppressed people in heaven.
And a second time they said, Hallelujah. And her smoke goes up to the ages of ages.
Babylon, the corrupt religious system that stole the name of Christ, has fallen. This verse holds two things at once: heaven's shout of joy, and smoke that never stops rising.
The cry is a Hebrew word carried straight into the New Testament from the Psalms.
"Hallelujah," they say. This beautiful Hebrew word appears four times in these celebrations of praise (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6), and nowhere else in the New Testament. It comes up often in the book of Psalms. It opens and closes each of the last five psalms. Taken together, those psalms express the praise Israel will bring in the Millennium. Hallelujah means "Praise Jehovah," or "Jah," a shortened form of Jehovah.
The repetition is not filler. It answers a long stretch of history in which God appeared to do nothing.
We also remember the persecutions. The false woman has shed the blood of millions of God's people, and God seemed not to step in at all. Seeing this, we might think that God has been indifferent to the evil of the world and the sorrows of His saints. But the day will come when everyone will see the truth. God's patience does not mean He is slow to keep His promise. It does not mean He has failed to see the sufferings of His people, or to hear their cries. In righteousness He will judge all the corruptions and avenge the blood of His servants. This intervention of God calls forth a second "Hallelujah" from the hosts of heaven.
Commentators differ over who this crowd is. One writer takes them as believers killed for their faith after the church left the earth.
So we conclude that they are the ones who were killed for their faith on earth after the church had been taken away, and were then called up on high… In the intensity of their joy, they repeat their Hallelujah.
Another writer keeps those martyrs apart from the elders and reaches a wider conclusion.
The various groups of martyrs — those of the coming crisis — stand apart from the elders. So we gather that the "great multitude" is all the saints then in Heaven.
The rising smoke is all that will be left of a system that looks impressive today.
And God will have a lasting witness to the overwhelming judgment of this false church, for we read, "The smoke from her goes up forever and ever" (v. 3). The Papal church looms large in the eyes of men today. But in the years to come, the only trace that she ever existed will be the smoke of her torment. Through the ages of the Millennium that smoke will bear witness to her doom, which can never be reversed, and to God's holy hatred of her corruptions.
How long is "forever and ever"? One writer answers by listing what else Scripture measures with the same words.
Notice the weight of the words "forever and ever." Every honest soul must admit they mean absolute eternity. Scripture speaks of three things in this absolute class. (1) The life of God (Rev. 4:9-10, etc.); (2) The smoke of Rev. 19:3; (3) The torment of Rev. 20:10. So God's eternity, the judgment He carries out in wrath, and the judgment felt by the one who suffers it are all eternal in the fullest sense.
One event brings tears on earth and joy in heaven. The difference lies in what the fallen system had pretended to be.
Nothing marks God's hatred of counterfeits in the things of Christ more solemnly than this repeated joy. Heaven rejoices over the judgment of a corrupt system that stole the name of the Lamb's wife while denying her character. Many people on earth think only of their own imagined interests, and they weep over her fall. But "a great multitude in heaven" thinks of Christ's glory, and gives praise to God for avenging the blood of His servants and judging the corrupter of the world.
So what does real love do in the face of a doom like this?
No true love can soften the terms of the divine judgment announced here. Real love will instead echo the call of mercy in the meantime: "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues."
- Praise named. "Hallelujah" means "Praise Jehovah." It is a word from the Psalms, and this chapter is the only place it appears in the New Testament.
- Praise repeated. The second Hallelujah answers the long years when the false woman shed His people's blood and God seemed to do nothing.
- Praise shared. Commentators differ on the singers — martyrs of the coming crisis, or all the saints then in heaven.
- Praise permanent. The smoke is a lasting witness: the same phrase measures God's own life, His wrath, and the doom of those under it.
- Praise applied. No one may soften a judgment this final. Until it falls, the call still stands: "Come out of her, my people."
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and did homage to God who sits upon the throne, saying, Amen, Hallelujah.
Heaven's answer to Babylon's fall narrows from a great crowd to a smaller circle: the elders and the living creatures fall down and say two Hebrew words. Who are they, why do they worship God and not Christ here, and why are the elders never seen after this?
Each group stands for something, and their order here is not the order used earlier in the book.
The elders stand for the redeemed and enthroned saints. The living creatures are the symbols of God's government in creation. Both "fell down and worshiped God." How profound the worship! How fitting the action! It is God, not Christ, Whom they honour. It is God Who has judged Babylon, so they give their worship to Him. Besides, Christ has not at this point taken up the government of the earth. God is the Judge of Babylon... In Revelation 5:8 the living ones come before the elders. Here the elders are named first, because they are more closely concerned in the judgment of the prostitute.
One of their two words comes straight from Israel's songbook.
"Hallelujah," they say. This beautiful Hebrew word occurs four times in these celebrations of praise (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6). It appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It appears often in the book of Psalms. It opens and closes each of the last five psalms. Taken together, those psalms express Israel's praise in the millennial kingdom. Hallelujah means "Praise Jehovah," or "Jah," a shortened form of Jehovah.
Their other word, "Amen," is agreement. Heaven signs its name to what God has done, and so it stands against what people on earth feel.
Heaven is of one mind, both in praising God and in rejoicing over the vengeance that has overtaken Babylon. That mind is in full communion with the mind of God — indeed, it is the expression of it. And that same mind, let it be said again, stands in direct opposition to the mind of man. God and all heaven rejoice over that which man considers his greatest disaster.
The larger company praises God for judging Babylon. The smaller circle has something else in view.
All heaven responds to the call to rejoice over the fall of Babylon. Then a more limited circle — the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures — take up the praise. They say nothing of the judgment of the great prostitute. It is true they add their "Amen" to all that God has done, but they are occupied with God Himself. So they fall down and worship God who sits on the throne, saying, "Amen; Hallelujah."
One writer connects the vanishing of the elders to the marriage of the Lamb.
Now we can see why the twenty-four elders are never seen again after the rejoicing over the fall of Babylon. They represented the redeemed. That group was made up partly of "the Church of the firstborn" — believers baptized into one body with Christ, His bride — and partly of the "just men made perfect," the saints of earlier ages. Until the marriage of the Lamb these formed one company. But now that His wife has made herself ready, they must separate.
The scene is still future, but one writer turns it on the reader today.
Heaven takes a remarkably deep interest in the fall and judgment of Christendom, or the apostate church... One day with the Lord is as a thousand years; but this terrible overthrow in judgment must come. May the Lord use this searching truth to separate us more to Himself! What an end of all human boasting! — the end of the period we live in, and so near! If we believe all this, it must separate us from all around to God Himself.
- Who — the elders stand for the redeemed, seated and crowned. The living creatures stand for God's government in creation. Here the elders come first, as the ones most closely concerned in the prostitute's judgment.
- Amen — heaven's signature on God's act. The same event that earth calls its worst disaster, heaven calls right.
- Hallelujah — "Praise Jehovah." It comes four times in this chapter and nowhere else in the New Testament. It opens and closes each of the last five psalms.
- Whom — not Christ, who has not yet taken up the government of the earth, but God on the throne, because God judged Babylon. They are taken up with Him, not with the ruin.
- Then silence — this is the elders' last appearance. Once the Lamb's wife has made herself ready, the one company they pictured must separate.
And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his bondmen, [and] ye that fear him, small and great.
Babylon has fallen, and Christ is about to take His throne. In between, a voice from the throne itself breaks in — not to announce judgment, but to command praise.
In earlier scenes the altar stood out. Here the call comes from somewhere else.
Here the throne itself speaks. In some of the past scenes a body of witnessing and suffering saints was in view, and the altar came into prominence. But here it is direct judgment on evil on the earth, for God is on His throne, as Christ is about to sit on His. The very throne is moved to speech (symbolic, of course). So a call to "praise" goes out from the centre and source of government — the terror of the wicked, the joy of the saints.
The verse does not name the speaker. His words give one clue.
It is a "voice" that gives the command. Whose voice is not said. But it carries the authority of the throne. And the speaker joins himself with those he addresses, since he uses the words "our God."
The order of events matters. The call comes only after something has been cleared away.
Babylon was judged — removed out of the way with her corruptions, which corrupted the earth; and the blood of the servants of the Lord God was avenged. The way was now clear, and a voice comes out of the throne calling for the voice of praise from all God's servants. His sons could always praise Him in spirit. But here evil no longer prevails and there is "delay no longer." So they, in their character of servants, and all that feared God, can praise Him; for He now reigned as the Lord God Almighty.
Judgment and the call to worship come from the same throne.
A voice comes out of the throne, the throne of judgment on which God is sitting, claiming worship from all His servants, and all that fear Him. His judgments are now visiting the earth. They bring both the solemn destruction of His enemies and the vindication of His own holiness.
Commentators differ on how far this call reaches. One says angels may be included; another takes in every soul in heaven.
The character in which those called to worship are viewed is worth noting. They are simply "His servants, and you that fear Him" — terms which would therefore include all the saints of all dispensations, as well as perhaps all the angelic host. There will not be one among all the multitudes of heaven who is not included under these names.
This is not a summons that has to overcome reluctance.
All who serve and all who fear Him, small and great, are invited to join in the glad song, which is a relief after the dark picture unfolded on earth. Here the terms are wide enough to take in every soul in heaven — angels, servants, and every redeemed one. Nor is it a call addressed to an unwilling congregation. All are ready, but a new cause of joy is to be supplied, a new ground of praise. The marriage of the Lamb is about to be announced.
Both words describe standing, and God-fearers are found at both ends of it.
There are those who fear the Name of the Lord in every rank and class of society. The technical expression "the small and the great" marks the respective standing of each in the world and before God.
One writer finds comfort in Noah's ark.
The small and the great had been in it, and the small were as safe as the great... Precious mystery! We may be little, and we are little, as the heart knows full well. But heaven, the coming system of glory, has fitted itself like the ark, to receive the small as well as the great... We may be calm, though we know ourselves to be "small" in every way.
This is not the first call to praise in the chapter.
The first call to praise had been to "saints, apostles and prophets." They were to rejoice over the judgment of the great prostitute. This second call is to all heaven: "Praise our God." There had been a glad response to the first call. But the voice from the throne calls out an overwhelming volume of praise that far exceeds it.
- Cleared — God judges Babylon and clears her corruption away. Only then does the way stand open for this call to praise.
- Commanded — the call carries the throne's own authority. Yet the speaker says "our God," putting himself beside those he calls.
- Included — two marks are named: serving Him and fearing Him. They reach across all the saints of every age.
- Small — "small and great" makes the least as welcome as the greatest, so the one who knows himself little can be calm.
- Answered — no one needs persuading. The praise outstrips every earlier burst, and the marriage of the Lamb is next.
And I heard as a voice of a great crowd, and as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of strong thunders, saying, Hallelujah, for [the] Lord our God the Almighty has taken to himself kingly power.
The praise that began in verse 1 has been building, and now a summons comes from the throne. What answers is a voice like many waters and thunder, and it celebrates God taking the government into His own hands.
The word that opens the shout is Hebrew, not Greek, and it appears in this chapter alone in the New Testament.
"Hallelujah," they say. This beautiful Hebrew word occurs four times in these celebrations of praise (vv. 1, 3, 4, 6), but nowhere else in the New Testament. It occurs often in the book of Psalms. It is the opening and closing word of each of the last five psalms. Those psalms, taken together, express the praise Israel will bring in the millennium. Hallelujah means "Praise Jehovah," or "Jah," a shortened form of Jehovah.
The crowd is larger than the one heard earlier, and its sound comes as a single voice.
The "great multitude" here probably includes all the redeemed in Heaven, except the bride. If so, it is a larger and wider company than the one in verse 1… John hears a voice like the sound of "many waters" and "strong thunders," that is, majesty and power combined. The summons has come from the throne, and now the mighty choir takes up the song in a voice of majesty and power — not voices, for the mind of Heaven is one. We now hear what fell on John's delighted soul, and the last "Hallelujah" sounds. The object of praise now is not Christ, but God on the throne in holy and righteous action.
God has always been almighty. The shout marks the moment He stops holding that power in reserve.
It is not, of course, a simple exhortation to what in heaven can need no prompting, but a preparation of hearts for what will supply fresh material for it. The response of the multitude shows what it is: "Hallelujah! for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns." The power that was always His He is now going to put forth. Judgment is to return to righteousness. Man's day is at an end, with all the confusion that his will has produced.
Where the ESV has "the Lord our God the Almighty," older translations read "the Lord God omnipotent." Either way it is not one name but three, and each has its own history.
The first is that the Lord God omnipotent reigns, showing that the kingdom is regarded as already established. The names under which God is celebrated here are remarkable. They include the several characters in which He showed Himself to the saints of old. Jehovah is the self-existent One, the One who is, and was, and is to come — the name in which He was pleased to reveal Himself in relationship with Israel. God is the expression of all that He is in His own being, taken by itself; He is the One with whom man has to do as a responsible creature. And finally, Almighty, or Omnipotent… The reigning celebrated here is connected with His kingdom shown on earth, not in heaven. It is, in fact, putting God's power in this world in the place of man's power, and so bringing in the era of righteousness, peace, and blessing.
Earlier in the book heaven sings to the Lamb. This shout has a different subject.
But let us not mistake the character of the praise. It is not that Christ reigns, but that "the Lord God omnipotent reigns." The Lord Jesus will come forth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. But here it is God who reigns. This is not a song of praise for the triumphs of grace through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is praise for the righteous vengeance of God upon Babylon, the mother of harlots. So it is not "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," but "Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigns."
Human history explains the volume. Power has been in the wrong hands for a very long time.
Think of the past or the present, in Scripture or in ordinary history. Consider how men have abused power. Then we cannot wonder at the joy heaven shows, and at the song of praise bursting out when God takes the government: "The Lord God omnipotent reigns!" Trace it back to the flood… What a change, when God shall take the power into His own hands, and we can sing, "The Lord God omnipotent reigns!"
The note is struck above before it is ever heard below.
What a day that will be! Hallelujah sounds first through the whole of heaven (Rev. 19:1, 3-4, 6). Then earth will take up that joyful note, and everything that has breath will praise Him.
- Called. Heaven does not begin on its own. A summons comes from the throne, and the great multitude answers at once.
- Loud. Many waters and thunder mean majesty and power. Yet it is one voice, for heaven has one mind.
- Named. Jehovah, God, Almighty — three names by which God made Himself known to His people of old, gathered into one shout.
- Crowned. "Reigns" does not mean God gains power He lacked. The power always His is now put forth, man's day ends, and righteousness, peace and blessing come in.
- Shared. The Hallelujah sounds first in heaven. Then earth takes it up, and everything that has breath praises Him.