What Does Revelation 6:16 Mean in the King James?
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
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 plea turns the mountains into a last imagined refuge from the presence of the one who reigns over them.
THE MEANING
You hear the people call to mountains and rocks to fall over them and hide them from the enthroned one’s face and the Lamb’s wrath. Their cry reaches beyond avoiding a gaze: they seek cover from the presence of the one before whom they stand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that finding a hiding place is the same as escaping the one who reigns.
THE ROOT
πρόσωπον
prosōpon
GROWS FROM
προσωπ-
prosōp-
Face or countenance; also the person or presence before someone.
Here, “face” carries the sense of the enthroned one’s presence, not only the sight of his features. Greek compounds built on πρόσωπον use “face” for the person who is received or treated with partiality, revealing why the people seek to be hidden from the one himself.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpolēmpsia: Partiality; literally, receiving a face.
προσωπολημψία
The compound uses “face” for the person being received, showing how the face can stand for the person before you.
prosōpolēmptēs: One who shows partiality; literally, a receiver of faces.
προσωπολήμπτης
This related compound likewise treats the face as the person, opening “hide us from the face” to mean hiding from the enthroned one’s presence.
THE PATTERN
When judgment becomes visible, people call on creation itself to conceal them from the one who reigns.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.THE THREAD
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.Hosea gives the same cry: mountains are asked to cover the people, and hills to take them in. Revelation sharpens the plea by naming what they want to hide from, the face of the enthroned one and the wrath of the Lamb.
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