What Does Revelation 10:11 Mean?
And he said to me, You must prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.THE KEY
The word is not finished when it is received; it must be spoken again across boundaries of people, language, and power.
THE MEANING
What reaches you does not remain a private insight: it presses toward speech again, among people whose languages and rulers differ. The message faces the full range of human communities, not just the ones already familiar to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that one moment of speaking completes a message; here, its work continues through renewed speech and a wider reach.
THE ROOT
προφητεῦσαι
prophēteusai
GROWS FROM
φη- (φημί, phēmi)
Say, speak. The verb joins this speaking root with προ- (pro-), carrying a sense of speaking before or forth.
“prophesy” in this verse is prophēteusai. English can make prophecy sound like prediction alone, but this word is rooted in speaking. Here, “again” makes that speech ongoing: the word returns to voice and keeps moving outward.
ALSO GROWS
prophētēs: prophet; one who speaks prophetically
προφήτης
The same word family names the speaker, showing that the verse’s action is voiced testimony.
prophēteia: prophecy; prophetic speech
προφητεία
This branch names the speech itself, linking the commission to an utterance that can continue beyond one telling.
γλώσσαις
glōssais
GROWS FROM
γλωσσ- (glōss-, γλῶσσα / glōssa)
Tongue; by extension, a language.
“tongues” in this verse is glōssais. The Greek word holds the bodily tongue and spoken language together. The verse’s reach therefore touches both the voice that speaks and the different languages in which people hear.
ALSO GROWS
glōssa: tongue, the bodily organ
γλῶσσα
James uses the same word for the tongue that speaks, keeping the human voice inside this image.
glōssa: language, a way of speaking
γλῶσσα
Acts uses the word for the languages in which people hear God’s works, revealing the linguistic reach carried by “tongues.”
ἔθνεσιν
ethnesin
GROWS FROM
ἐθν- (ethn-, ἔθνος / ethnos)
A people or nation; a collective of people.
“nations” in this verse is ethnesin. The word points to human communities, not an abstract map of borders. Beside peoples, languages, and kings, it widens the commission across the groups that shape belonging and public life.
ALSO GROWS
ethnos: people, nation
ἔθνος
This is the singular form behind “nations,” grounding the verse’s reach in actual communities.
ethnikos: of the nations; Gentile
ἐθνικός
This related word keeps the same people-group root while naming those beyond one’s own community.
THE PATTERN
A word received in one voice is sent across the boundaries of peoples and languages.
Before I shaped you in the belly, I knew you; and before you came out of the womb, I set you apart, and I gave you to the nations as a prophet.This good news of the governance is proclaimed in all the inhabited earth as a witness to all the nations, and then the end comes.Cretes and Arabians, we hear them speak in our tongues the great works of God.THE THREAD
And I give to my two witnesses, and they prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, wrapped in sackcloth.The same Greek verb translated “prophesy” appears for the witnesses’ speech. It opens “again” onto continuing testimony: the word is carried by more voices and is not exhausted in one utterance.
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