What Does Revelation 6:16 Mean?

And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of the one seated upon the throne, and from the burning anger of the Lamb.

Revelation 6:16 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

THE KEY

The plea turns the mountains into a last imagined refuge from the presence of the one who reigns over them.

THE MEANING

You hear the people call to mountains and rocks to fall over them and hide them from the enthroned one’s face and the Lamb’s wrath. Their cry reaches beyond avoiding a gaze: they seek cover from the presence of the one before whom they stand.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that finding a hiding place is the same as escaping the one who reigns.

THE ROOT

πρόσωπον

prosōpon

GROWS FROM

προσωπ-

prosōp-

Face or countenance; also the person or presence before someone.

Here, “face” carries the sense of the enthroned one’s presence, not only the sight of his features. Greek compounds built on ⁨πρόσωπον⁩ use “face” for the person who is received or treated with partiality, revealing why the people seek to be hidden from the one himself.

ALSO GROWS

prosōpolēmpsia: Partiality; literally, receiving a face.

προσωπολημψία

The compound uses “face” for the person being received, showing how the face can stand for the person before you.

prosōpolēmptēs: One who shows partiality; literally, a receiver of faces.

προσωπολήμπτης

This related compound likewise treats the face as the person, opening “hide us from the face” to mean hiding from the enthroned one’s presence.

THE PATTERN

When judgment becomes visible, people call on creation itself to conceal them from the one who reigns.

And they shall enter the caves of the rock, and the hollows of the dust, from the dread of the LORD and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to make the earth tremble.

Isaiah 2:19 · SDVAs the LORD’s majesty shakes the earth, people flee into rock holes and caves, making concealment the reflex of exposed fear.

Also the high places of Aven, the falling short of Israel, shall be laid waste. The thorn and the thistle shall climb up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us."

Hosea 10:8 · SDVThe people cry out to mountains and hills to cover them as judgment overtakes the places they trusted.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us.

Luke 23:30 · SDVThe same cry returns as people ask mountains and hills to shield them when judgment comes.

THE THREAD

Also the high places of Aven, the falling short of Israel, shall be laid waste. The thorn and the thistle shall climb up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us."

Hosea 10:8 · SDV

Hosea gives the same cry: mountains are asked to cover the people, and hills to take them in. Revelation sharpens the plea by naming what they want to hide from, the face of the enthroned one and the wrath of the Lamb.

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