What Does Revelation 19:1 Mean?
After these things I hear a great voice of a great crowd in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Deliverance, and weight, and honor, and power to our God.
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 after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:THE KEY
The cry places deliverance alongside God’s weight, honor, and power: rescue belongs to the very nature of the One praised.
THE MEANING
A great multitude voices what is true now: deliverance, weight, honor, and power belong to God. The praise gathers rescue with God’s substance and authority in one declaration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s power and God’s deliverance are separate is undone: both belong to God.
THE ROOT
σωτηρία
sōtēria
GROWS FROM
σωτηρ-
sōtēr-
Rescue and preservation; the word family also names the deliverer.
This word family holds both deliverance and the deliverer who brings someone out. The multitude names deliverance as belonging to God, beside honor and power.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
The related noun names the one who brings a person out of danger; here deliverance belongs to God.
sōtērios: bringing deliverance, saving
σωτήριος
This branch describes what brings rescue, keeping the verse’s deliverance concrete and active.
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δοξ-
dox-
Esteem and reputation; here, weight, the substance and consequence that belongs to God.
The verse’s glory carries weight: what has substance and consequence. Its word family also speaks of giving glory and being held in honor, so God’s weight draws recognition.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: glorify, honor
δοξάζω
This related verb describes giving glory, joining the verse’s weight to the response of praise.
endoxos: esteemed, glorious
ἔνδοξος
This related adjective describes what is held in honor, echoing the recognition voiced by the multitude.
δύναμις
dynamis
GROWS FROM
δυνα-
dyna-
Ability, capacity; being able to act.
Power here is capacity in action, not an empty title. The related words describe being able and possessing strength, giving the verse’s praise a sense of active authority.
ALSO GROWS
dynamai: be able, can
δύναμαι
This verb makes the root’s capacity explicit: power means the ability to act.
dynatos: able, strong, powerful
δυνατός
This adjective describes one who possesses that capacity, fitting the verse’s naming of God’s power.
THE PATTERN
Praise reveals the source by naming deliverance and authority as belonging to God.
The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance. This is my God, and I will make him a dwelling; my father's God, and I will lift him high.God speaks once; twice I hear this, that strength belongs to God.For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him let there be weight for the ages. Amen.THE THREAD
And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Deliverance to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!The same Greek word for deliverance appears in both verses: deliverance belongs to God and the Lamb. Here it stands beside weight, honor, and power, showing the fullness gathered into that cry.
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