Revelation 19:1 - Printer Friendly

ESV: After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

NIV: After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

NASB: After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,

CSB: After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,

NLT: After this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, 'Praise the Lord! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.

KJV: And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:

NKJV: After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!

John reports that he heard what seemed to be a great multitude in heaven crying out with a loud voice. Heaven is not a sparsely populated place, as some may think. It is highly populated with heavenly beings and redeemed human beings (Revelation 7:9). Together, the members of this massive throng shout, "hallelujah!" meaning "praise the Lord!" These praises are sung after describing the fall of Babylon (Revelation 17—18), and just before John's vision of the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11).

Their praise attributes exclusive qualities to God. Salvation, glory, and power belong to Him. Salvation may refer to deliverance from sin and eternal hell, a feat that only God can accomplish by His grace (Ephesians 2:8–9), or it may refer to deliverance from the power of Satan and his allies. Certainly, God delivers His people from the persecution they experience in the tribulation at the hands of the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

When the ark of the covenant was brought from the house of Obed-Edom to the tabernacle, great rejoicing and praise celebrated the event. David sang, "Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name" (1 Chronicles 16:29). In Psalm 8:1, David wrote that God had "set [His] glory above the heavens." The ascription of power to God is certainly justified. Throughout biblical history God displayed His omnipotent power, and in the tribulation He reveals His unmatched power in destroying Babylon.

Revelation 19:1–5 records praise which rises to God from a great multitude in heaven. The praise follows the fall of Babylon recorded in chapters 17 and 18. Similar praise is reported in Revelation 4:10–11; 5:9–10, 12–13; 7:11–12, and 11:16–18. The praise precedes the marriage supper of the Lamb, as well as the second coming of Christ in glory and the judgment of the nations.

Revelation 19 begins with a multitude in heaven singing a doxology to God. He is praised for judging religious Babylon and avenging the martyrs. They are joined by the twenty-four elders (Revelation 4). Voices cry out joyfully that the Lord reigns and the marriage supper of the Lamb is ready. Then, John sees heaven open and observes Jesus—now coming as the glorious and invincible King of kings and Lord of lords—as He descends from heaven to execute judgment. The armies of earth gather to battle the Lord. The battle concludes with the Antichrist and False Prophet being thrown into the lake of fire and the graphic slaughter of their followers.

This chapter describes the victorious second coming of Christ, His victory over the Antichrist and the False Prophet after the fall of Babylon (Revelation 17—18). Christ's first arrival on earth was to redeem (Matthew 2; Luke 2:1–21; John 1:1–14; Galatians 4:1–5). The purpose of His second coming is judgment and the establishment of His reign on earth (Psalm 2). This is separate from the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17), the event in which Jesus returns in the air to take Christians from earth to be with Him. Jesus' second coming begins the millennial kingdom, leading up to the final judgments and the appearance of the New Jerusalem.

The word ''revelation'' means ''an unveiling or disclosure.'' This writing unveils future events such as the rapture, three series of judgments that will fall on the earth during the tribulation, the emergence of the Antichrist, the persecution of Israel and her amazing revival, as well as Jesus' second coming with His saints to the earth, the judgment of Satan and his followers, and finally, the eternal state. This content, combined with the original Greek term apokalypsis, is why we now refer to an end-of-the-world scenario as ''an apocalypse.''