What Does Revelation 14:17 Mean?
And another messenger comes out of the temple that is in heaven, he too holding a sharp sickle.
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 another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.THE KEY
The sharp sickle is already in the messenger’s hand as he comes from the temple: readiness emerges from the sanctuary before the cutting begins.
THE MEANING
The image meets you at the threshold of a harvest: a messenger emerges from heaven’s temple with the sickle already sharp. The cutting has not begun, but its instrument is ready and its source is named.
THE ROOT
δρέπανον
drepanon
GROWS FROM
δρεπ-
drep-
To pluck or reap.
The Greek word for “sickle” grows from the action of plucking or reaping: the tool carries the harvest action within its name. Its sharpness makes the removal ready, while the verse holds the cut just ahead.
ALSO GROWS
drepō: To pluck or reap.
δρέπω
The verb names the action the sickle is made to perform.
drepanē: A sickle.
δρεπάνη
This related form names the harvesting tool itself.
ἄγγελος
angelos
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
aggel-
Message or announcement.
The word rendered “angel” also means messenger: this is a bearer of a message, not only a heavenly figure. Here the messenger comes from the temple already carrying the instrument, so the commission is visible before it is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
angellō: To announce or report.
ἀγγέλλω
The messenger’s word belongs to the same family as the act of announcing.
angelia: A message or announcement.
ἀγγελία
The related noun shows that the messenger carries a message, even before the verse records any speech.
THE PATTERN
A sharp sickle marks the moment when a ripe harvest is ready to be gathered.
Stretch out the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.But when the fruit is handed over, straightway he sends out the sickle, because the harvest is standing here.And another messenger comes out from the altar, the one who holds power over fire, and calls out with a loud voice to the one holding the sharp sickle, saying, Send your sharp sickle and pick the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes have reached their peak.THE THREAD
And another messenger comes out from the altar, the one who holds power over fire, and calls out with a loud voice to the one holding the sharp sickle, saying, Send your sharp sickle and pick the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes have reached their peak.The Greek word for “sickle” recurs in the command to thrust it in, so the tool held ready here becomes action in the next verse. The movement is from a messenger emerging with the instrument to the gathering of ripe clusters: this verse is the pause before the cut.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us