What Does Revelation 16:7 Mean?
And I hear from the altar, saying, Yes, LORD God, the All-Ruling, true and aligned are your judgments.
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 another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.THE KEY
A voice from the altar calls judgment truth brought into alignment, speaking from the place where the victims’ blood is remembered.
THE MEANING
The altar’s voice meets you now with a verdict: the judgments of the Lord God Almighty are true and aligned. The verse holds shed blood beside the judgment that answers it, naming power together with truth and rightness. The altar becomes a witness that judgment is not detached from the lives it touches.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that judgment is merely arbitrary power, detached from truth and rightness.
THE ROOT
κρίσεις
kriseis
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
The Greek word for judgments belongs to a family built around discerning and deciding. The altar’s voice says these decisions are true and aligned, so judgment here is presented as an answer to what has happened, not a bare display of power.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: Judge, decide, or discern.
κρίνω
The related verb names the act behind the judgments affirmed by the altar.
krima: A judgment or verdict.
κρίμα
This related noun shows the same family can name the decision that follows discernment.
δίκαιαι
dikaiai
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Rightness or alignment.
“aligned” in this verse is dikaiai. The word translated “righteous” carries the sense of alignment and rightness. It describes the character of the judgments: they accord with what is true, rather than resting on authority alone.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: Righteousness; alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
This related word carries the same idea of rightness that shapes the altar’s verdict.
dikaiōma: A right act, requirement, or decree.
δικαίωμα
This branch shows how the word family can describe what is rightly established.
ἀληθιναὶ
alēthinai
GROWS FROM
ἀληθ-
alēth-
Truth or genuineness.
“True” names the judgments as faithful to reality, while “righteous” names their alignment with what is right. Together they say that the verdict is both real and rightly ordered.
ALSO GROWS
alētheia: Truth.
ἀλήθεια
This related word names the truth affirmed here about the judgments.
alēthēs: True or genuine.
ἀληθής
This branch shares the same truth-bearing family as the altar’s description.
THE PATTERN
Just judgment expresses truth through right alignment and answers harm rather than ignoring it.
He is the Rock; whole is his work, for all his ways are judgment. A God of steadiness, without crookedness, aligned and straight is he.And he judges the world in alignment; he pleads the case of the peoples in straightness.For true and aligned are his judgments, for he has judged the great harlot, who spoiled the earth with her harlotry, and has avenged the blood of his servants from her hand.THE THREAD
And they cry out with a great voice, saying, How long, Set-Apart and true Master, will you not judge and avenge our blood against those who settle upon the earth?The souls beneath the altar ask how long until their blood is judged and avenged; “judge” and “judgments” come from the same Greek word family, κρίνω (krinō, to judge or decide). Revelation 16:7 lets the altar image move from asking for judgment to voicing its affirmation: the judgments are true and aligned.
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