What Does Revelation 21:4 Mean in the King James?
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
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 word for God wiping away tears also means erasing what is written: grief is met with complete removal, not dismissal.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you a future in which God himself wipes every tear. Death, sorrow, crying, and pain are named plainly, then declared gone; the former order passes away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every tear must remain unanswered and that death gets the last word.
THE ROOT
ἐξαλείψει
exaleipsei
GROWS FROM
ἀλείφω
aleiphō
To rub or smear; with ἐκ, “out,” the compound means to wipe off or erase.
“wipe” in this verse is exaleipsei. The Greek verb ἐξαλείφω carries the force of wiping away and erasing. The image is not that tears are minimized, but that God personally removes them, as the verse also declares death and pain gone.
ALSO GROWS
aleiphō: Rub, smear, or anoint.
ἀλείφω
This is the base verb within the compound, whose action is directed outward and away in the verse.
aleimma: Ointment; something applied by rubbing.
ἄλειμμα
It preserves the root’s sense of rubbing across a surface, which helps make the wiping image concrete.
exaleipsis: Wiping out or erasure.
ἐξάλειψις
This noun makes explicit the removal sense that the compound verb carries when God wipes away tears.
THE PATTERN
God’s promised wholeness removes the causes of grief while meeting every tear directly.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.THE THREAD
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;The Greek verb translated “blotting out” here is the same verb used for God wiping away tears in Revelation 21:4. In both verses, the image carries the force of removal; it does not make the tears unreal.
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