What Does Revelation 18:20 Mean?
Rejoice over her, heaven, and you set-apart ones, sent ones, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment out of her.
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
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.THE KEY
The verse’s “avenged” carries the shape of a verdict: God takes up your case against the one who harmed you.
THE MEANING
When someone harms you, this verse speaks of a case God brings to judgment; the wrongdoer does not own the final verdict. Heaven, the set-apart ones, apostles, and prophets rejoice as the answer arrives. Your injury is seen as a matter of justice, not erased or renamed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the powerful can harm you and keep the case unanswered forever.
THE ROOT
ἔκρινεν
ekrinen
GROWS FROM
κρίνω (krinō), stem κριν- (krin-)
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
“judged your judgment out of her” in this verse is ekrinen. The Greek sets “judged” (ekrinen) beside “judgment” or “case” (krima), so the KJV’s “avenged” carries the shape of a verdict: your cause is taken up against her. Vindication here is God’s judgment answering the harm done.
ALSO GROWS
krima: Judgment, verdict, or case.
κρίμα
This cognate appears in the same sentence, making the link between God’s judgment and the injured ones’ case visible.
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
This branch shows the act as a decision that distinguishes what is right from the harm being judged.
kritēs: Judge.
κριτής
The shared root names the one who renders a verdict, bringing the verse’s image of justice into focus.
ἅγιοι
hagioi
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart; consecrated.
“set-apart ones” in this verse is hagioi. The people addressed as “holy” are named as set apart. The related words preserve that sense of being marked off for God, placing the rejoicing community alongside the verdict that answers the harm.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: To set apart or consecrate.
ἁγιάζω
The verb makes the root’s action clear: setting apart is something done, not merely a title.
hagiasmos: Consecration; setting apart.
ἁγιασμός
This noun carries the same root into the state of being set apart that marks the people addressed.
THE PATTERN
The cry of those harmed is answered when God judges the power that harmed them.
For he who seeks out blood remembers them; he does not forget the cry of the bowed ones.And will God not set his own chosen straight, the ones who cry out to him day and night, though he is slow to heat with them?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
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 same Greek root, κρίνω (krinō), “judge,” links the verdict here with the judgment in Revelation 18:20. This verse names the harm being answered: the blood of God’s servants.
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