What Does Revelation 11:2 Mean?
But throw out the court that is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it is given to the nations, and they trample the set-apart city for forty-two months.
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
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.THE KEY
The city is still called holy while it is being trampled: sacredness does not make it untouchable.
THE MEANING
The passage holds two realities together: the outer court is cast outside the measured boundary, and the city remains set apart while it is handed over and trampled for a counted span. Holiness names what the city is; it does not promise immunity from pressure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If something is truly set apart, it cannot be exposed to harm; being trampled proves it has lost its sacredness.
THE ROOT
ἔκβαλε
ekbale
GROWS FROM
βαλλ- (ball-), the stem of βάλλω (ballō)
Throw or cast; with ἐκ- (ek-, out), ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) means cast out.
“throw out” in this verse is ekbale. “Leave out” can sound like merely omitting something from a count, but the Greek gives it a spatial force: cast outside. The court is placed beyond the measured boundary.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw, cast
βάλλω
This is the basic verb beneath the command to cast the court outside.
apoballō: Cast away, throw off
ἀποβάλλω
The same root can describe something being thrown from one’s hold, as in Hebrews 10:35.
πατήσουσιν
patēsousin
GROWS FROM
πατ- (pat-), the verbal stem of πατέω (patéō)
Step or tread upon; here, the nations will trample the city.
“trample” in this verse is patēsousin. The verb names trampling, not merely being present in the city. The city’s designation as set apart stands beside that force, so harm does not erase what the text calls it.
ALSO GROWS
patéō: Tread, step upon
πατέω
This is the verb used here and in Luke 10:19, where the object underfoot is serpents.
katapatéō: Trample down, tread underfoot
καταπατέω
The related compound makes the downward force explicit, as in Matthew 7:6.
ἁγίαν
hagian
GROWS FROM
ἁγι- (hagi-), the stem of ἅγιος (hágios)
Set apart; holy.
The city is called holy in the very clause that says it will be trampled. The word carries its set-apart character alongside the violence; it does not promise physical invulnerability.
ALSO GROWS
hágios: Set apart, holy
ἅγιος
The same word describes what remains true of the city in this verse.
hagiasmós: Setting apart, consecration
ἁγιασμός
This related word makes the root’s sense of being set apart visible as an action or state.
THE PATTERN
A place called holy can still be handed over to outside power and trampled for a bounded season.
And I heard a set-apart one speaking, and a set-apart one said to a certain one who was speaking, "How long is the vision of the continual and the rebellion that lays waste, giving both the set-apart place and the army to be trampled?"They will fall by the mouth of the sword, and be led away captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the seasons of the nations are filled.THE THREAD
Look, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the strength of the enemy, and nothing will by any means injure you.The same Greek verb, πατέω (patéō, “tread”), describes the city underfoot here and serpents underfoot in Luke. The shared word holds both trampling and a reversal of who is underfoot; the surrounding verse shows who is acting.
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