What Does Revelation 14:10 Mean?
And he himself drinks from the wine of the seething of God, poured out undiluted into the cup of his swelling. And he is tormented in fire and sulfur before the face of the set-apart messengers, and before the face of the Lamb.
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
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:THE KEY
The Greek places “prepared” beside “unmixed,” making the cup’s undiluted strength part of the sentence itself.
THE MEANING
The cup of divine anger is drunk at full strength, and its consequence is named without veil: torment in fire and brimstone before the holy messengers and the Lamb. The suffering is exposed and witnessed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this judgment is diluted or hidden: the cup is unmixed, and the torment is in the presence of witnesses.
THE ROOT
ἀκράτου
akratou
GROWS FROM
κεραννυ-
kerannymi
To mix or blend; with the privative ἀ-, ἄκρατος means unmixed or undiluted.
“undiluted” in this verse is akratou. The Greek sets a form of “mix” beside “unmixed.” The cup is prepared, yet its contents are not diluted.
ALSO GROWS
kekerasmenou: having been mixed or prepared
κεκερασμένου
This participle appears immediately before ἀκράτου in the Greek, placing “mixed” and “unmixed” side by side.
kerasate: mix it
κεράσατε
Revelation 18:6 uses the same verb family for the contents of Babylon’s cup, returning to this language of measured judgment.
θυμοῦ
thymou
GROWS FROM
θυμ-
thym-
Heat, anger, and fierce inward force.
“seething” in this verse is thymou. The Greek word translated “wrath” carries the sense of heat and force. It stands beside ὀργή, another word for anger, intensifying the image of the cup rather than cooling it.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: anger, heat, passion
θυμός
This is the noun naming the heated anger in the wine of this verse.
epithymia: desire, longing
ἐπιθυμία
This related word carries the stem into intense inward desire; here its force is expressed as anger.
βασανισθήσεται
basanisthēsetai
GROWS FROM
βασαν-
basan-
To torment; the related word family also carries touchstone and testing language.
“tormented” in this verse is basanisthēsetai. The verb names torment, and the verse specifies fire and brimstone, keeping its violence explicit. The testing echo in the word family does not replace the suffering the sentence states.
ALSO GROWS
basanos: torment, torture; touchstone
βάσανος
The word family holds torment alongside testing language, while the verse gives the torment a concrete form.
basanistēs: tormentor, torturer
βασανιστής
The related noun keeps the root concrete: this is inflicted torment, not merely inner distress.
THE PATTERN
The cup makes judgment something received and drunk to its bitter end.
For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams, full and mixed; he pours from it, but its dregs, all the wicked of the earth, drain and drink.Awake, awake, rise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his burning. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of reeling, and drained them.And the great city splits into three parts, and the cities of the nations fall, and great Babylon is remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the burning of God's anger.THE THREAD
Give back to her as she gave, and double to her double according to her works; in the cup she mixed, mix her a double.The Greek verb behind “fill” here belongs to the same mixing-word family placed beside “unmixed” in Revelation 14:10. The cup returns with its contents measured back double, extending the image of judgment given at full strength.
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