What Does Revelation 14:13 Mean?
And I hear a voice from heaven saying to me, Write, Flourishing are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the breath, that they may rest from their toil, and their works follow with them.
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 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.THE KEY
The verse names the dead flourishing: their toil ends, but their works follow them.
THE MEANING
The voice names as flourishing those who die in the Lord from this point onward. Their toil comes to rest, while their works go with them. The verse holds rest and the continuing trace of a life together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that death makes a person’s work disappear: the verse says their works follow them.
THE ROOT
ἀναπαύσωνται
anapausōntai
GROWS FROM
παύω (pauō), stem παυ- (pau-)
To stop or cease; ἀναπαύω means to give rest or refresh.
The verb family carries rest as a stopping of exertion. The verse says the toil ends, while the next clause says the works still accompany them.
ALSO GROWS
pauō: Stop, cease.
παύω
This basic sense brings the ending of exertion into the verse’s promise of rest.
anapausis: Rest, relief.
ἀνάπαυσις
This noun from the same family holds cessation and relief together.
κόπων
kopōn
GROWS FROM
κοπ-
kop-
The word family carries the sense of striking or beating, and extends to toil that wears one down.
The Greek word for these labours is κόπος, a wearisome toil. Its contrast with the works that follow makes the promise specific: exhaustion ends, but what a person has done is not erased.
ALSO GROWS
kopos: Toil, wearisome effort.
κόπος
This is the noun used for the labours from which the dead find rest.
kopiaō: Labor, grow weary.
κοπιάω
This related verb connects exertion with the weariness that comes to an end.
ἔργα
erga
GROWS FROM
ἔργον (ergon), stem ἐργ- (erg-)
Work, deed, or activity accomplished.
The verse shifts from κόπος (kopos), wearisome toil, to ἔργα (erga), deeds or works. The toil can cease while the works still follow, keeping rest distinct from erasure.
ALSO GROWS
ergazomai: Work, carry out.
ἐργάζομαι
The verb shares the work-family behind the deeds that accompany the dead.
ergasia: Work, activity.
ἐργασία
This related noun shows the wider family of action and work carried forward in the verse’s image.
THE PATTERN
The Lord lets human toil reach rest while giving the work of a life lasting meaning.
And also, every human eats and drinks, and sees good in all his toil. This is the giving of God.Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.So then, my beloved brothers, be steady, unmoved, always overflowing in the work of the Lord, seeing that your toil is not empty in the Lord.THE THREAD
Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.“I will give you rest” uses ἀναπαύσω (anapausō), from the same Greek verb family as “they may rest” in Revelation. Both verses place rest alongside labor, showing relief from exhaustion without erasing a life’s works.
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