What Does Revelation 16:15 Mean in the King James?
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The warning’s deepest contrast is between being found clothed and being exposed when the unexpected moment arrives.
THE MEANING
Flourishing belongs to the one who stays awake and guards their garments while the arrival is still unannounced. Readiness is present now: this person walks clothed rather than exposed to public shame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that readiness can wait until the moment becomes obvious; the verse gives no warning that the arrival will announce itself first.
THE ROOT
γρηγορῶν
grēgorōn
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
To awaken, rouse, or raise up; the watch-word γρηγορέω (grēgoreō) is linked to the state of having awakened and being awake.
The word rendered “watcheth” carries the sense of staying awake, not merely looking around for a sign. The verse’s readiness is an awake state that continues while the arrival remains unseen.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: Awaken, rouse, or raise up.
ἐγείρω
Its range shows the wakefulness beneath the verse’s call to watch.
grēgoreō: Stay awake; keep watch.
γρηγορέω
This is the verb used for the person who remains awake here and for the watchman in the connected warning about a thief.
τηρῶν
tērōn
GROWS FROM
τηρ- (tēr-), the stem of τηρέω (tēreō)
To keep, guard, or preserve.
“keepeth” in this verse is tērōn. The garment is something guarded before the moment of exposure arrives. The verse presents readiness as preserving one’s covering through time, not scrambling to find it at the last moment.
ALSO GROWS
tērēsis: Keeping, guarding, custody.
τήρησις
It makes the guarding sense visible: what is kept remains in one’s care.
syntēreō: Preserve or keep safe.
συντηρέω
Its sense of preserving clarifies the verse’s image of garments retained through the wait.
THE PATTERN
What must be guarded is kept through wakeful attention before danger or exposure arrives.
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.THE THREAD
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.Matthew’s “watched” uses the same Greek verb γρηγορέω (grēgoreō, stay awake or keep watch) as Revelation’s “watcheth.” The shared word makes the thief image a test of wakefulness already being maintained; Revelation adds what that wakefulness preserves, the garment that keeps the person from exposure.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us