What does Revelation 14:20 mean?
The city mentioned in this verse is likely old Jerusalem. The judgment God executes on the wicked centers outside Jerusalem, appropriately so, because that's where Jesus bore God's wrath for our sins. His cross was located at Golgotha, which was located outside Jerusalem (John 19:16–18).This passage uses the symbolism of grapes in a winepress to describe the eventual defeat of the wicked in the end times. As grapes are crushed and broken to release wine, the bodies of God's enemies will be smashed in a bloody defeat. Taken in absolutely literal terms, this verse describes a cascade of blood some five or six feet (2 meters) high and 180 miles (290 kilometers) long. Most interpreters see this as primarily symbolic. Some suggest that what's described is a 1600-stadia zone of carnage during battle, so violent that blood is splattered as high as the head of a horse.
Whether entirely or partly poetic, one thing is certain: this judgment creates a gory scene. Revelation 19:13 pictures Jesus as having blood on His robe as He rides into warfare against the wicked. Although some believe this is the blood Jesus shed on the cross, others see this as the blood of His enemies. The interpretation that it is the blood of His enemies is supported by the prophetic picture given in Isaiah 63:2–4. Jesus' defeat of His enemies at the end of the tribulation will be absolute and terrible.