What Does Revelation 9:17 Mean?
And so I see the horses in the vision, and those who sit on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths come fire and smoke and brimstone.
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 thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.THE KEY
The horses do not merely carry destruction: their mouths are the outlet through which it proceeds.
THE MEANING
You are shown a vision in which the horses’ mouths release fire, smoke, and brimstone; their lionlike heads sharpen the image of something predatory and terrifying. Destruction is not only visible in the scene: it moves outward from these mouths.
THE ROOT
ἐκπορεύεται
ekporeuetai
GROWS FROM
πορευ-
poreu-
To go or travel; with ἐκ (ek), “out,” to go forth or proceed out.
“come out” in this verse is ekporeuetai. The verb makes the fire, smoke, and brimstone a movement from a source, not merely features of the horses. English “issued” preserves that motion, while the Greek word also connects this image to the wider language of going forth.
ALSO GROWS
poreuomai: Go, travel, or depart.
πορεύομαι
The underlying verb keeps the image in motion: these forces go forth from the mouths.
poreia: A journey or course.
πορεία
This related form carries the same sense of movement along a course, echoing the forces’ outward advance.
THE PATTERN
Fire and brimstone mark destructive judgment as an active force released into the world.
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the heavens.But on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven, and made them all perish.By these three is the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which comes out of their mouths.THE THREAD
What enters the mouth does not make a person common, but what comes out of the mouth, this makes a person common.Both verses use the same verb for what proceeds out of a mouth. Matthew names the mouth as the source of what comes outward; here, the vision makes that outward movement fire, smoke, and brimstone.
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