What Does Revelation 21:26 Mean?
And they carry the weight and the honor of the nations into it.
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 they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.THE KEY
The nations’ weight and worth are not left beyond the city; they are carried into its fullness.
THE MEANING
The city receives the weight and worth of the nations within itself. What is honored among the peoples enters its wholeness instead of remaining outside its gates.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that holiness requires the nations’ honor to remain outside is undone: this verse says it is brought into the city.
THE ROOT
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δοκ-
dok-
A word family tied to thinking or seeming, and to the reputation or worth that is recognized.
Here, glory is what is recognized as weighty and worthy among the nations. The Hebrew parallel כָּבוֹד (kavod), meaning weight, makes that worth feel substantial: what carries weight among the peoples is brought into the city.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To think or seem; to hold an opinion.
δοκέω
This branch shows how glory can be the worth others perceive and recognize.
doxazō: To honor or glorify.
δοξάζω
The act of glorifying gives recognition to the worth named by doxa.
τιμή
timē
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Value, price, or the honor given to something considered valuable.
The nations bring not only visible splendor but also their recognized value. Honor here carries the sense of what is prized, so the city’s fullness receives what the peoples hold precious.
ALSO GROWS
timaō: To honor or value.
τιμάω
This verb shows honor as an act of assigning worth to someone or something.
timios: Precious or valuable.
τίμιος
This branch makes the link between honor and what is considered precious explicit.
εἰσφέρω
eispherō
GROWS FROM
φερ-
pher-
To carry or bear; with εἰς (eis), meaning into, the compound means to carry inward.
“carry” in this verse is eispherō. The word pictures something borne across a boundary and brought inside. The nations’ weight and worth are received within the city rather than merely admired from beyond it.
ALSO GROWS
pherō: To carry or bear.
φέρω
This is the carrying action at the heart of the verse’s movement inward.
metapherō: To transfer or carry across.
μεταφέρω
This related compound likewise describes something being carried from one place or state to another.
THE PATTERN
The dwelling of God receives the nations’ honor and wealth within its open life.
Therefore your gates shall be open continually. They shall not be shut, day nor night, so that they may bring to you the strength of the nations, and their kings may be led in.And I will shake all the nations, and the desire of all the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with my weight, says the LORD of hosts.And the nations of the delivered walk by its light, and the kings of the earth carry their weight and honor into it.THE THREAD
Therefore your gates shall be open continually. They shall not be shut, day nor night, so that they may bring to you the strength of the nations, and their kings may be led in.Isaiah describes gates that stay open so the nations can bring their wealth into the city. Revelation names what comes through those gates as the peoples’ weight and worth, making their welcome part of the city’s design.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us