What Does Revelation 15:4 Mean?
Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord, and give weight to your name? For you alone are set apart, and all the nations come and bow down before your face, for your judgments are made visible.
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
Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.THE KEY
The nations bow as God’s judgments make the weight of God’s nature visible.
THE MEANING
The question reaches every people now: God’s right acts and decisions stand revealed, making the nature carried by God’s name visible. Awe and bowing answer this disclosure, and every nation stands within its horizon.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that judgment only conceals God’s nature: here, God’s right acts are made visible, making the divine name recognizable.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-
onom-
Name or designation; here, the name carries the nature and identity of the one named.
A name is more than a label in this verse: God’s nature becomes recognizable through what God does. As the judgments are revealed, the weight of that nature comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: to name or call by name
ὀνομάζω
Naming makes identity recognizable, as God’s revealed acts make the nature carried by the name visible.
onomastos: named, renowned, well known
ὀνομαστός
This branch links a name with what is known about its bearer, echoing the verse’s public recognition of God’s nature.
δοξάζω
doxazō
GROWS FROM
δόξ-
dox-
Honor, glory, recognized worth, the weight accorded to what is seen.
“give weight to your name” in this verse is doxazō. The word family joins glory with the weight something carries in public recognition. Glorifying God’s name acknowledges the weight of God’s nature as the judgments are disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
doxa: glory, honor, recognized worth
δόξα
This is the noun behind the verb: God’s name receives honor as God’s character becomes visible.
endoxos: honored, glorious, held in esteem
ἔνδοξος
This branch describes recognized honor, matching the nations’ response before God.
δικαιώματα
dikaiōmata
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Rightness and justice; what is right or just.
The Greek noun includes the sense of right acts or just decisions, adding texture to “judgments.” The verse presents these acts as made visible, so God’s rightness is brought into view among the nations.
ALSO GROWS
dikaios: just, right
δίκαιος
This branch names the quality made visible in God’s judgments.
dikaiosynē: justice, right alignment
δικαιοσύνη
The shared root links the judgments to alignment with what is right, now disclosed to all nations.
dikaioō: to justify, declare or show to be right
δικαιόω
This branch echoes the verse’s movement from God’s right acts to their becoming manifest.
THE PATTERN
When God’s nature and rightness are brought into view, peoples are gathered into recognition.
For I know their works and their thoughts. It is coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my weight.The LORD makes his deliverance known. He uncovers his alignment before the eyes of the nations.That at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven, and things on the earth, and things under the earth. And every tongue should say the same aloud, that Jesus the Anointed One is Lord, to the weight of God the Father.THE THREAD
All the nations you made come and bow down before your face, O Lord, and give weight to your name.Psalm 86:9 gives the same sequence in nearly the same words: all nations come before God and glorify God’s name. Revelation adds what is unveiled: God’s right acts stand revealed, making the weight of that name visible to the nations.
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