What Does Revelation 7:16 Mean?
They do not hunger any longer, nor thirst any longer; nor does the sun fall upon them, nor any burning heat.
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
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.THE KEY
Here, deliverance is measured by what no longer consumes the body: hunger, thirst, sun, and burning heat.
THE MEANING
This verse gives you a bodily measure of wholeness: hunger and thirst cease, and the sun and burning heat no longer reach the exposed. The relief named here includes the body’s real needs and vulnerability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine care comforts only the inward life while bodily need and exposure remain untouched.
THE ROOT
καῦμα
kauma
GROWS FROM
καυ-
kau-
to burn, kindle
The English “heat” can sound ambient, but καῦμα (kauma) means burning heat: what no longer reaches these people is what scorches them. The same word family names scorching elsewhere in Revelation, making this verse’s relief the inverse of that harm.
ALSO GROWS
kaiō: to burn, kindle
καίω
This verb carries the burning action at the heart of the heat named here.
kaumatizō: to scorch, burn with heat
καυματίζω
In Revelation 16:9, this same word family describes people being scorched with great heat, the harm this verse says no longer falls on them.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is pictured as both the meeting of bodily need and the removal of what harms the body.
They shall not hunger or thirst, and neither the scorching wind nor the sun shall strike them, for the one who has compassion on them shall lead them, and beside springs of waters he shall guide them.The sun does not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.And God wipes away every tear from their eyes, and there is no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the first things have gone away.THE THREAD
They shall not hunger or thirst, and neither the scorching wind nor the sun shall strike them, for the one who has compassion on them shall lead them, and beside springs of waters he shall guide them.This verse echoes Isaiah’s wording: no hunger or thirst, and no heat or sun striking the exposed. Isaiah continues with a guide leading to springs of water, so the picture holds both the end of harm and the presence of provision.
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