What Does Revelation 19:21 Mean in the King James?
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
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 Greek verb for “filled” here is the same one that promises the hungry will be filled, but in this verse the birds feast on the slain.
THE MEANING
This scene speaks to you now as a brutal reversal: the same verb that names fullness for those who hunger for alignment here names the birds’ feeding on human bodies. The sword comes from the rider’s mouth, and its consequence remains bodily, public, and unsoftened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that being filled is always an image of blessing: here the birds are filled through the consumption of the slain.
THE ROOT
ἐχορτάσθησαν
echortasthēsan
GROWS FROM
χορτ-
chort-
Grass or fodder; the related verb means to feed until satisfied.
The word carries the sense of being fed to fullness, not simply having an abstract lack removed. The same verb describes the hungry being filled in Matthew 5:6, making the birds’ feeding here a stark inversion of that promise.
ALSO GROWS
chortos: Grass or fodder
χόρτος
It names food as something consumed, bringing the birds’ feeding in this verse into sharp physical focus.
chortazō: To feed or satisfy
χορτάζω
This is the verb behind “filled” here and in Matthew 5:6, where those who hunger and thirst are promised fullness.
ἐξελθούσῃ
exelthousē
GROWS FROM
ἐρχ-
erch-
To come or go; the prefix ἐκ- marks movement outward.
“proceeded out” in this verse is exelthousē. The verb marks the sword’s direction: it comes out from the rider’s mouth. Its movement root also appears in words for entering and going out, locating the judgment at the point of utterance rather than in a separate hand-held weapon.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: To come or go
ἔρχομαι
This is the basic movement shared by the verb translated “proceeded out.”
eiserchomai: To enter or go in
εἰσέρχομαι
It uses the same root with a prefix marking inward movement, clarifying the outward direction in this verse.
exerchomai: To go out or depart
ἐξέρχομαι
This is the verb whose participle describes the sword coming out of the rider’s mouth.
THE PATTERN
A word issuing from God’s mouth carries force that acts, judging or dividing rather than merely describing.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.THE THREAD
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.“Filled” translates the same Greek verb, χορτάζω, in both verses. Matthew promises fullness to those who hunger for alignment; here the birds are filled by consuming the slain, turning the shared language of satiety into a chilling reversal.
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