The psalmist's 'But you, O LORD—how long?' is a stock lament cry that feeds the martyrs' 'how long'; recurrence of the formula across the Psalter (cf. Pss 13:1-2; 35:17; 90:13) makes it a plausible but diffuse source rather than a single quotation.

My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how long?


Abel's blood crying out from the ground for justice is the typological prototype of righteous martyr-blood that cries for vindication; thematic coherence is strong though there is no direct verbal quotation.

Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.


The sacrificial blood poured out 'at the base of the altar' grounds the image of the martyrs' souls/lives 'underneath the altar,' since 'the life is in the blood' (Lev 17:11); cultic-sacrificial coherence supports reading the martyrs as poured-out offerings.

The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before Yahweh, which is in the Tent of Meeting; and he shall pour out all of rest of the blood of the bull at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the Tent of Meeting.


God bids his people 'hide for a little while until the wrath is past,' for the LORD comes to punish bloodshed and 'the earth will disclose her blood'; the motif of resting/waiting a short while until the full measure of judgment matches v. 11.

Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.


In 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) the souls of the righteous in their chambers ask 'How long are we to remain here?' and are told to wait until the predetermined number of the righteous is complete—an exact conceptual parallel to the martyrs' being told to wait until their full number is filled. Second-Temple apocalyptic coherence is very high.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


The Similitudes describe the blood/prayer of the righteous ascending and the petition that judgment be done for them, with a set number of the righteous to be fulfilled; close Second-Temple parallel to the fifth seal's cry and the waiting for the completed number.


The garment of salvation/robe of righteousness may faintly inform the 'long white robe' given to each martyr as vindication; verbal volume is low and white-robe imagery is widespread, so the link is tentative.

I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.


'The sky shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all their host shall fall as a leaf falls from the vine, as figs fall from the fig tree' supplies both the rolled-up scroll of heaven AND the falling stars/figs imagery—the single densest source in this pericope. The LXX 'the heaven shall be rolled up as a scroll' matches John's wording closely.

All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.


'The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD' is the direct source for the blackened sun and blood-moon of v. 12; high verbal volume and shared 'day of the LORD' framing (cf. v. 17).

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.


'The earth quakes... the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' yokes the earthquake, darkened luminaries, and stars together exactly as Rev 6:12-13 does; recurrence of Joel's cosmic-portent cluster reinforces the link.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.


On the day of the LORD against Babylon, 'the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark... and the moon will not shed its light'—a standard darkened-luminaries oracle behind v. 12; strong thematic coherence with judgment-day cosmology.

For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.


God will cover the heavens, darken the sun with a cloud, and make the moon not give light, darkening all the bright lights of heaven over the land; another darkened-luminaries oracle contributing to the cumulative cosmic-collapse imagery.

When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.


Jeremiah's vision of cosmic undoing—the heavens without light, and 'the mountains... quaking and all the hills moved to and fro'—stands behind 'every mountain and island were moved out of their places'; thematic coherence of de-creation judgment.

I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.


'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight' is part of the day-of-the-LORD darkening tradition feeding the blackened sun; verbal volume is modest but the motif recurs across the prophets.

It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.


'The mountains quake before him, the hills melt' contributes to the shaken-mountains imagery of v. 14, though the specific 'moved out of their places' wording is closer to Jeremiah and Isaiah.

The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.


'I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land' may faintly underlie the cosmic shaking that moves every mountain and island; thematic coherence with eschatological upheaval but low verbal volume.

For this is what Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;


'I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering' offers the rare sackcloth-darkened-sky image matching 'the sun became black as sackcloth of hair'; a precise but isolated verbal parallel, hence tentative.

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”


Men 'enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground from before the terror of the LORD' on the day he rises to terrify the earth—the direct source for hiding in caves and rocks of the mountains from the divine presence; high verbal volume and shared day-of-judgment setting.

Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, […]


'They shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us' is quoted almost verbatim in v. 16 ('they told the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us'); the closest thing to a formal citation in the pericope. LXX wording aligns tightly.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!”


'Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD and the glory of his majesty' parallels hiding 'from the face of him who sits on the throne'; reinforces the Isaiah 2 hiding-from-the-divine-presence motif.

Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.


'The day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it?' supplies the climactic 'the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?'; near-verbal match in the rhetorical question of endurance.

Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?


'Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?' is a direct parallel to 'who is able to stand?'; strong verbal volume and shared theme of withstanding the day of judgment.

“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;


'Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?' closely matches the closing question about standing before divine wrath; high coherence with the wrath-and-endurance motif.

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.


The 'great day of the LORD' of wrath and distress, against kings, princes, and all classes, from which silver and gold cannot deliver, supplies both the 'great day of wrath' and the social catalogue (kings, princes, rich); strong thematic and structural coherence.

The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they […]


'You, even you, are to be feared; and who may stand in your sight when once you are angry?' adds to the cumulative 'who can stand before God's wrath' tradition behind v. 17; thematic coherence, moderate verbal overlap.

You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?


'The kings of the earth set themselves... against the LORD and against his Anointed' lies behind the catalogue headed by 'the kings of the earth' now cowering before the throne and the Lamb; ironic reversal of Ps 2 supports the echo.

The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,


'For the LORD has a day of vengeance' belongs to the same day-of-wrath oracle (continuous with Isa 34:4 used in 6:12-14) and may reinforce 'the great day of his wrath'; verbal volume here is low.

For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.


'Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it' may faintly color 'the great day of his wrath,' but the wording is generic to day-of-the-LORD rhetoric, so the link is tentative.

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.


The defining background: an angelic figure sets a mark (Heb. taw) on the foreheads of the faithful before destruction is unleashed, and those marked are spared ("do not touch any on whom is the mark"). John's sealing of the bondservants on the foreheads before harm comes to earth/sea/trees reproduces the structure exactly — protective marking that withholds judgment. Hays' criteria: volume, thematic coherence, and historical availability all strong; the LXX renders Ezekiel's taw with semeion (sign/mark), bridging toward John's sphragis (seal). The strongest single echo in the unit.

Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in its midst. To the others he said in my hearing, Go through the city after him, and strike: don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity; kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is […]


"The four winds of heaven stirred up the great sea" — the closest verbal parallel for "the four winds" as agents associated with cosmic upheaval and the unleashing of beasts/judgment. Daniel is John's most pervasive single source-book, raising historical-availability and recurrence weight; here the four winds are the very instruments of the eschatological turmoil John's angels restrain. LXX (Theodotion) tessares anemoi tou ouranou matches John's tessaras anemous.

Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the sky broke out on the great sea.


The four chariots/spirits are "the four winds of heaven, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth" — four winds as commissioned heavenly agents going forth over the earth, echoed in John's four angels stationed at the four quarters who are given power over earth and sea. LXX uses anemoi explicitly. Coherent with John's angelology of restrained, commissioned winds.

The angel answered me, “These are the four winds of the sky, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth.


"I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds" — four winds from the four ends/quarters of heaven as instruments of judgment-scattering. Supplies the spatial idiom of winds at the four corners/quarters that John fuses with the corners-of-the-earth motif. LXX = Jer 25:16 LXX (chapter renumbering); table-of-nations resonance. Cited 49:36 as the principal Hebrew verse.

On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.


"An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land/earth" — supplies the phrase "the four corners of the earth" (Heb. arba kanphot ha-arets) in an oracle of imminent total judgment, matching John's tessaras gonias tes ges and the eschatological-end setting. Coheres with the surrounding Ezekiel-9 sealing material, suggesting deliberate clustering of Ezekiel imagery.

You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end has come on the four corners of the land.


"gather... from the four corners of the earth" (arba kanphot ha-arets) — the only other classic occurrence of the four-corners phrase, here in an ingathering (not destruction) context. Faint; supplies idiom shared with Ezek 7:2 and possibly colors the gathering of the sealed remnant by tribe that immediately follows. Contested as direct.

He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


Passover typology: the destroyer passes over houses bearing the apotropaic blood-mark on the doorposts, sparing the marked. The protective-mark-withholding-the-destroyer pattern stands behind both Ezek 9 and John's sealing. Faint and mediated through Ezekiel rather than direct, but figurally apt (and reinforced by the Lamb/blood imagery later in the chapter).

For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.


"the living God" (Aram. elaha chayya) — Daniel's recurrent epithet (also 6:20), one source for John's "the seal of the living God." The title is widespread (cf. Josh 3:10; Ps 42:2; Hos 1:10), so volume is low and attribution to any single verse is uncertain.

I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even to the end.


Triad "earth... sea... trees" as the scope of creation to be spared echoes the created order (land, waters, trees of the garden); faint creation-protection resonance. More plausibly John's own merism than a specific citation.

Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


The tribe-by-tribe census-roll of the able-bodied men of Israel, numbered for a holy war muster, is the genre and form John reproduces: "of the tribe of X were numbered/sealed N thousand," tribe after tribe. The 144,000 are an eschatological militia mustered tribe-by-tribe — a Numbers war-census transposed. Strong on form, recurrence (Num 1, 2, 26 all share the cadence), and the military-census connotation. Principal verses Num 1:1-46 (cite 1:20 ff. for the per-tribe formula).

Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one; from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall […]


Jacob's blessing of the twelve sons/tribes is the foundational twelve-tribe roster and explains John's striking placement of Judah first — Judah, not the firstborn Reuben, heads John's list because Gen 49:8-10 gives Judah primacy and the lion/scepter (messianic) prophecy John applies to the Lamb (cf. Rev 5:5). The reordering is interpretive, not careless. High coherence with John's Judah-Christology.

Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come. Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power. Boiling over like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my […]


The canonical enumeration of the twelve sons of Jacob by their mothers — the master list against which John's idiosyncratic roster is measured. John's omission of Dan and Ephraim and inclusion of both Manasseh and Joseph (to keep twelve) is a deliberate variation on this base list; recognizing the variation requires this source as foil. Medium volume, high diagnostic value.

While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid): Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.


The second wilderness census (the new generation mustered for the conquest) reinforces the muster-for-holy-war reading of the 144,000 and supplies a second instance of the per-tribe "twelve thousand"-style cadence. Coheres with Num 1; together they make the census-form unmistakable.

After the plague, Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all who are able to go out to war in Israel.” Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Take a census, from twenty years old and upward; as Yahweh commanded Moses and the children […]


Ezekiel's eschatological twelve-tribe roster — the twelve gates of the restored city named for the twelve tribes — stands behind Revelation's tribal lists (cf. Rev 21:12). Ezekiel here also restores Joseph/Levi arrangements in a non-Numbers order, a precedent for John's reshuffling. Thematic coherence with the eschatological-Israel framing; volume moderate.

These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure; and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one. At the east side four thousand and five hundred reeds, and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one. At the south side four thousand and […]


Possible background for the conspicuous OMISSION of Dan from John's list: Dan's blessing ("a serpent in the way") and later association with idolatry (Judg 18; Dan as the apostate sanctuary, cf. 1 Kgs 12:29) generated a patristic tradition linking Dan to the Antichrist. The absence is an argument-from-silence intertext — significant but inferential.

“Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent on the trail, an adder in the path, That bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward. I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.


The Blessing of Moses, a second tribal-blessing roster (notably omitting Simeon and ordering tribes distinctively), is a further precedent for variable, theologically-weighted tribe lists. Faint; cited as one more member of the tribal-roster tradition John draws on rather than a specific source.

This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them. Yes, he loves the people. All his saints are in your hand. They sat down at your feet. Each receives your words. Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of […]


The Abrahamic promise: "count the stars, if you are able to count them... so shall your offspring be" — the uncountable, innumerable seed. John's "a great multitude, which no man could count" (hon arithmesai auton oudeis edynato) directly fulfills the count-if-you-can promise, now extended beyond Israel to every nation. Strong on volume and on John's larger Abrahamic-fulfillment logic (the multitude completes what the sealed 144,000 represent).

Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your seed be.”


Parallel Abrahamic promise: offspring "as the dust of the earth, which if a man can number..." — the explicit "if a man can number" idiom that John negates ("which no man could count"). LXX ei dynatai tis exarithmesai is verbally close to John's clause. Pairs with Gen 15:5 as the twin innumerability promises being eschatologically realized.

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.


The palm branches (phoinikes) in the multitude's hands evoke the Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot, where worshipers take "branches of palm trees" and rejoice before the LORD — fitting the booth/tabernacle imagery that immediately follows (7:15, God spreading his tabernacle, skenosei). Festal-joy and ingathering-harvest coherence is strong; the specific lulav connection is the principal reason this is an allusion not a mere echo.

You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days.


"all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him" (Aram./Theod. laoi, phylai, glossai) — Daniel's stereotyped fourfold list of the nations is the template for John's recurrent "every nation, tribe, people, and language" formula (cf. Rev 5:9; 13:7). The multitude drawn from all peoples fulfills Daniel's universal dominion of the Son of Man. Recurrence in Revelation strengthens the link.

There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


Simon's triumphal entry into the Jerusalem citadel "with praise and palm branches (baia)... and with hymns and songs" — Second-Temple precedent for palm branches as the gesture of victory celebration and deliverance, illuminating why the redeemed multitude (victors out of tribulation) bear palms while acclaiming salvation. Confirms the victory-procession nuance alongside the Tabernacles nuance (cf. also 2 Macc 10:7; John 12:13).

And he entered into it on the three and twentieth day of the second month, in the hundred and seventy and first year, with praise and palm branches, and with harps, and with cymbals, and with viols, and with hymns, and with songs: because a great enemy was destroyed out of Israel.


"Salvation belongs to the LORD" (LXX Ps 3:9, tou kyriou he soteria) — the acclamation "Salvation be to our God" closely mirrors this psalmic confession that deliverance is God's alone. Idiom is common across the Psalter (cf. Ps 37:39; Jonah 2:9), so attribution to a single verse is uncertain, but the verbal shape is closest here.

Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be on your people. Selah.


David's doxology — "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory... and the majesty... blessing" — a sevenfold-style ascription of attributes to God that stands behind the seven-membered doxology of 7:12 (blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, might). Liturgical-doxological coherence; faint as a specific citation since such ascriptions are formulaic.

Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all.


The throne-vision with surrounding heavenly beings prostrate/crying praise underlies the angels, elders, and four living creatures falling before the throne; the living creatures themselves derive from Isa 6 seraphim and Ezek 1/10. Faint here because the throne-room cast is established earlier (Rev 4) rather than newly drawn from Isaiah in this verse.

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”


"They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither scorching heat nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them" — the densest verbal source in the chapter. John reproduces all four elements in order: no hunger, no thirst, no sun/scorching heat smiting them, and a shepherd-guide leading to springs of water. Hays' criteria max out (volume, recurrence of the Servant-shepherd motif, coherence with the new-exodus ingathering). LXX peinasousin... dipsesousin... kausön... pegas hydaton tracks John closely.

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.


"He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces" — direct source for "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (exaleipsei... pan dakryon). The eschatological consolation at the victory-banquet on the mountain. High verbal volume; recurs at Rev 21:4. Note the MT "swallow up death" vs. LXX katepien ho thanatos ischysas; John follows the tear-wiping clause closely regardless of the textual divergence in the first colon.

He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.


"I will set up over them one shepherd... my servant David, and he shall feed them and be their shepherd" — the messianic Davidic-shepherd promise underlying "the Lamb... shepherds them." Striking oxymoron (the Lamb is the Shepherd) fuses Ezekiel 34's shepherd-king with John's Lamb-Christology. Strong coherence; Ezek 34:23 cited as the principal verse of the chapter-long shepherd oracle.

I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.


"The LORD is my shepherd... he leads me beside still waters" (LXX Ps 22:1-2, hodegesen me epi hydatos anapauseos) — the shepherd-leads-to-water image directly behind "shepherds them, and leads (hodegesei) them to springs of life-giving waters." John's hodegeo echoes the psalm's verb. High volume and coherence with the Isa 49 / Ezek 34 shepherd cluster.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.


Judah's blessing: "he washed his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes" — the only OT image of washing a robe in (grape-)blood, giving John the paradoxical "washed their robes... white in the Lamb's blood." Coheres with the Judah/Lion-Lamb Christology and ties pericope 7.4 back to the Judah-first tribal list (7.2). The blood-of-grapes/blood-of-the-Lamb figural link is medium-to-strong on coherence though contested on verbal volume.

Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.


"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" — the prophetic image of sin-cleansing producing whiteness underlies robes "made white" through the Lamb's blood (cleansing-unto-whiteness). Coheres with the purification motif; medium volume since John supplies the paradoxical agent (blood) absent from Isaiah.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.


"Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white (LXX leukanthosin) and be refined" through the time of trouble — the closest source for the eschatological making-white of the faithful precisely amid tribulation, matching "made them white" of those who "came out of the great tribulation." Daniel's end-time-refining-whitening is thematically and verbally apt (leukaino).

Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand.


"Some of the wise shall stumble, to refine and purify them and to make them white (LXX leukanai), until the time of the end" — companion to Dan 12:10; the wise are whitened/refined through persecution. Reinforces the tribulation-purification reading of the white-robed multitude. Cited alongside 12:10 as the Danielic whitening pair.

Some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.


"there shall be a time of trouble (LXX thlipsis / Theod. hemera thlipseos) such as never has been" — the eschatological great distress that John names "the great tribulation" (tes thlipseos tes megales). Daniel supplies the technical term and the deliver-the-named-remnant frame; coherent with the sealing/deliverance arc of the whole chapter.

“At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book.


"I will make my dwelling (LXX skenen) among you... and I will walk among you" — the covenant-presence/tabernacling promise behind "He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle (skenosei) over them." Part of the dwelling-of-God-with-his-people stream (Ezek 37:27; cf. Rev 21:3). Medium coherence; the skene cognate strengthens it.

I will set my tent among you, and my soul won’t abhor you. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.


"My dwelling place (LXX kataskenosis) shall be with them, and I will be their God" — the eschatological tabernacling-with-the-redeemed promise, near-synonymous with Lev 26:11 and directly echoed in the skenoo of 7:15 (and again Rev 21:3). Reinforces the new-covenant-presence reading.

My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.


Over Zion a canopy/booth (LXX skepe) for "shade from the heat" and shelter — combines the tabernacle-spread-over-them and the no-scorching-heat motifs in a single Zion-protection oracle, paralleling 7:15-16. Faint but apposite; possibly part of the cluster behind John's protective-canopy imagery.

Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.


"The LORD is your keeper... the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night" — the sun-shall-not-strike-you protection paralleling "neither will the sun beat on them." Idiomatically close but likely mediated through Isa 49:10, which John follows more fully; cited as a secondary witness.

Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.


Faint: white-garment/clean-robe symbolism of the purified Zion-remnant in Isa 4 (the branch made glorious, the survivors called holy) coheres with the white-robed survivors of tribulation; included as a contested ingathering-of-the-holy-remnant resonance rather than a verbal source.

Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”


"the fountain of living waters" (LXX pegen hydatos zoes) — Jeremiah's image of God as the living-water source colors "springs of life-giving waters" (pegas hydaton zoes); the phrase also runs through Ps 36:9, Zech 14:8, and John 4/7. Common idiom, so single-verse attribution is uncertain; cited as the closest verbal match.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.


Volume + recurrence: the demand for silence before the LORD in his holy temple is the classic prophetic backdrop for the 'silence in heaven.' Satisfies thematic coherence (heavenly throne/temple) and is the most-cited parallel for the eschatological hush preceding judgment.

But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”


'Be silent before the Lord GOD, for the day of the LORD is near' — silence as overture to the Day of the LORD, matching the silence that precedes the trumpet-judgments. Strong thematic coherence with Revelation's day-of-wrath sequence; LXX (Soph 1:7) 'eulabeisthe' softens to 'reverence' where MT has 'hush.'

Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests.


'Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he is roused from his holy habitation' (MT 2:17). Silence before the LORD stirring from his dwelling for judgment; coheres with the angel's altar action that immediately follows.

Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”


'Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you' — the explicit equation of prayer with rising incense underlies vv. 3–4 (incense + prayers of the saints ascending before God). Verbal + conceptual correspondence is very close; a recognized fixed idiom in Second-Temple piety.

Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.


Day of Atonement: the high priest takes a censer of coals from the altar with handfuls of incense, the smoke cloud rising before the mercy seat. Strong correspondence — golden censer, fire from the altar, incense smoke before the throne/mercy seat — supplying the cultic template for vv. 3–5.

He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, so that he will not die.


The golden altar of incense before the veil/throne, on which incense is offered. Source for 'the golden altar which was before the throne'; coheres with the tabernacle furniture imagery pervading Revelation's heavenly sanctuary.

“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall […]


The man clothed in linen is told to fill his hands with burning coals from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city as judgment. Direct typological model for v. 5 — fire from the altar cast to the earth, transforming intercession into judgment. High recurrence in Revelation scholarship.

He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. He went in as I watched.


Sinai theophany: thunders, lightnings, and trumpet blast on the mountain. The closing storm-theophany formula (thunders, sounds, lightnings, earthquake) replays Sinai and anticipates the trumpet sequence; a recurring Revelation refrain (cf. 4:5; 11:19; 16:18).

On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked […]


Aaron runs with a censer of incense and fire from the altar to stand between the dead and the living, staying the plague. Inverts here: censer/incense intercession becomes the launch of plagues. Plausible figural counterpoint; flagged as a contested intertext.

Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire from off the altar in it, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has begun.” Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. Behold, the plague has begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague […]


Heavenly temple vision: altar, burning coal taken with tongs, smoke filling the house, the throne. Atmospheric coherence with the throne-room sanctuary, though no specific verbal hook beyond shared temple furniture.

One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal […]


Seven priests with seven trumpets before the city of Jericho, whose blast brings the walls down. Anticipatory background for the 'seven angels... seven trumpets' (v. 2); figural model of trumpet-blast as instrument of God's judgment.

Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.”


Raphael as one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter before the glory of the Holy One. Second-Temple parallel illuminating the angelic mediation of saints' prayers in vv. 3–4 (cf. also 1 Enoch 9; 99:3).

I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of the Holy One.”


Angelic agents 'who stand before God' resonates with the court attendants of Daniel's visions; faint, generic angelological background for 'the seven angels who stand before God.'

I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.


The seventh Egyptian plague: the LORD sends thunder, hail, and fire running down to the earth, striking everything in the field and shattering every tree. Closest correspondence to 'hail and fire... thrown to the earth' and the destruction of trees/vegetation; the trumpet-plagues are explicitly modeled on the Exodus plagues.

Moses stretched out his rod toward the heavens, and Yahweh sent thunder, hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every […]


The two silver trumpets sounded to summon, alarm, and signal the LORD's action; alarm-blast for war and the day of gladness. Source of the cultic-military trumpet that signals divine intervention, framing the whole seven-trumpet sequence (vv. 6 ff.).

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Make two trumpets of silver. You shall make them of beaten work. You shall use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps. When they blow them, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the Tent of Meeting. If they blow just one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the […]


'Blow the trumpet in Zion... for the day of the LORD is coming' — the trumpet as alarm announcing the Day of the LORD and an attendant army; coheres tightly with Revelation's trumpet-judgments and the locust/fire imagery to follow.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand:


Judgment on Gog: 'I will rain on him... torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur.' Hail + fire + blood as instruments of eschatological judgment; supplies the apocalyptic-warfare register fused with the Exodus plague.

With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.


The LORD makes heard his majestic voice with cloudburst, tempest, and hailstones, with the flame of a devouring fire. Thematic coherence for storm-fire judgment from heaven; secondary to the Exodus base text.

Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.


Theophany: hailstones and coals of fire from the brightness before the LORD. Faint storm-theophany resonance with 'hail and fire'; generic and contested.

At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire. Yahweh also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.


'Blood and fire and columns of smoke' among the portents of the day of the LORD (MT/LXX 3:3). Possible source for the unusual 'mixed with blood'; faint verbal cluster (blood + fire), flagged contested.

I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.


First Egyptian plague: the Nile and the waters of Egypt turn to blood, the fish die, and the water becomes undrinkable. Direct model for 'one third of the sea became blood' and the death of sea-creatures (vv. 8–9); the plague-template governs the second and third trumpets.

Moses and Aaron did so, as Yahweh commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river died; and the river became foul, and the Egyptians couldn’t drink water from the river; and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.


Against Babylon: 'I am against you, O destroying mountain... I will make you a burnt mountain.' Closest source for the 'great burning mountain' cast down; Babylon-as-mountain hurled to destruction, apt as Revelation prepares its own Babylon. Verbal hook (burnt/burning mountain) is strong.

Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.


'I will feed this people with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink' (MT/LXX 9:14). Source for the wormwood + bitter/poisoned waters motif (vv. 10–11); LXX renders the herb 'cholē/wormwood' with 'water of gall,' close to the Apocalypse's pairing of wormwood and lethal water.

therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.


Against false prophets: 'I will feed them with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.' Parallel wormwood-and-poison-water judgment formula reinforcing v. 11; doubles the Jeremianic 'wormwood' source.

Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.


Ninth Egyptian plague: thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days. Source for the darkening of luminaries (v. 12); the plague-cycle supplies the darkness motif, here recast cosmically onto sun/moon/stars.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They didn’t see one another, neither did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.


Day-of-the-LORD oracle against Babylon: 'the sun will be dark... the moon will not give its light.' Primary source for sun/moon/stars darkened (v. 12); coheres with Revelation's Babylon-judgment trajectory.

For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.


'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight' — Day-of-the-LORD darkening of the sun; supports the partial daylight-loss of v. 12 (the day not shining for a third of it).

It will happen in that day,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.


Marah: the people could not drink the bitter waters. The bitter-undrinkable-water motif of v. 11 echoes Marah; here judgment, not mercy, and no sweetening. Thematic correspondence (bitter waters bringing death) rather than verbal.

When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah.


'Set the trumpet to your lips! One like an eagle/vulture is over the house of the LORD' — eagle + trumpet + judgment cluster underlies the eagle crying woe amid the trumpets (v. 13). LXX renders the bird 'aetos' (eagle), matching Revelation; MT 'nesher' ambiguous (eagle/vulture).

“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.


Covenant curse: the LORD will bring a nation 'swift as the eagle flies,' an invader announcing doom. Background for the swift eagle/announcer of woe (v. 13), pairing the bird-of-prey with imminent judgment on earth-dwellers.

Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand;


'How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star...' — a fallen luminary from the sky. Resonates with the great star Wormwood falling from heaven (v. 10); the figural fallen-star imagery is a recognized backdrop, though the named referent differs.

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!


Lament over Tyre: ships, merchandise, and mariners sink in the heart of the seas. Background for the destruction of a third of the ships (v. 9); maritime-catastrophe imagery feeding Revelation's economic judgment (cf. ch. 18).

Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your repairers of ship seams, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you, with all your company which is in your midst, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin. At the sound of the cry of your pilots the suburbs shall shake. All who handled the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their […]


'In the end she is bitter as wormwood' — wormwood as proverbial emblem of bitterness/death; faint lexical support for the Wormwood naming, secondary to the Jeremiah sources.

But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.


Stars that transgressed the LORD's command burning/cast into a fiery abyss. Second-Temple background for the fallen, burning star (v. 10); thematic and contested.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining' on the day of the LORD. Reinforces the luminary-darkening of v. 12; overlaps with Isa 13:10, so registered as a faint secondary echo.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.


The controlling subtext for the whole locust vision. Joel's locust army is explicitly 'like horses... like war horses they run' (2:4) with the noise 'like the noise of chariots' (2:5) leaping on walls in formation; John reproduces both the horse-likeness (9:7) and the chariot-sound of wings (9:9). Volume, recurrence (Joel cited again at 9:7,9), and thematic coherence (eschatological invasion preceding the Day of the LORD) are all strong. LXX akris and the cavalry simile align tightly with John's wording.

Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. Neither […]


Joel describes the locust nation with 'teeth of a lion' (Heb. shinnei 'aryeh; LXX odontes leontos), the exact image John gives the locusts in 9:8 ('their teeth were like those of lions'). Verbal and imagistic correspondence; reinforces dependence on Joel's locust apocalypse.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.


The eighth Egyptian plague: locusts cover the land and devour 'every green thing' / 'all the grass' (10:15, LXX panta ton chorton... pan to chloron). John's 9:4 inverts the plague — these locusts are forbidden to harm the grass and every green thing — a deliberate exodus-plague echo signaled by shared vocabulary (grass, green thing, trees). The trumpet plagues throughout Rev 8-9 recapitulate the exodus signs.

Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left.” Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the […]


The seal on the foreheads (9:4) reworks Ezekiel's mark (taw) set on the foreheads of those who sigh over abominations, so the destroyers pass them over; Ezek 9:6 'do not touch anyone on whom is the mark.' Same protective forehead-marking logic, shared with Rev 7:3. Strong typological and verbal correspondence (LXX sphragis / Rev sphragida; metopa, foreheads).

Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in its midst. To the others he said in my hearing, Go through the city after him, and strike: don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity; kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is […]


The 'star fallen from heaven to earth' (9:1) evokes Helel ben Shachar, the Day Star/Lucifer 'fallen from heaven' (14:12) cast down to Sheol/the Pit (14:15, LXX hadou). The fall + descent to the abyss/Pit and the personal agency ('to him... the key') support a figural reading of a fallen angelic being. Note Hebrew 'Helel' (Day Star) vs LXX 'heosphoros'; John echoes the trajectory more than the lexeme.

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.


9:6 'they will desire to die, and death will flee from them' closely matches Job 3:21, those 'who long for death, but it does not come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures.' Shared paradox of death sought yet withheld; high verbal/thematic correspondence (LXX himeirontai tou thanatou).

Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,


Smoke rising from the pit 'like the smoke from a burning furnace' (9:2) echoes Abraham seeing Sodom's destruction, 'the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace' (LXX hosei atmis kaminou). Shared furnace-smoke simile of cataclysmic judgment; the abyss takes on Sodom-like overtones.

He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.


Sinai theophany: the mountain's 'smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace' (LXX hos kapnos kaminou). The same furnace-smoke phrase as Rev 9:2; a Sinai/judgment-theophany overtone alongside the Genesis 19 link. Identifying the exact source is difficult since the simile is stock OT idiom.

Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.


In Joel the locust-Day-of-the-LORD darkens sun and moon (2:10; cf. 2:2 'a day of darkness and gloom'); Rev 9:2 darkens 'the sun and the air' by the pit-smoke (per 9:2-3 sequence). Same eschatological darkening tied to the locust visitation, strengthening the Joel matrix already controlling the pericope.


The king's Hebrew name 'Abaddon' (9:11) is the OT term for the realm of destruction/Sheol, paired with Sheol in Job 26:6 ('Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering'). John personifies the place-name into the angel of the abyss; explicit Hebrew lexical borrowing (Abaddon).

Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.


'Abaddon and Death say...' (28:22) personifies Abaddon alongside Death, anticipating John's personalization of Abaddon as the angel-king of the abyss (9:11). Reinforces the Hebrew-Bible background of the name Apollyon glosses ('Destroyer'). LXX renders Abaddon as apoleia, the lexical bridge to Apollyon.

Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’


'Sheol and Abaddon are before the LORD' — another Abaddon/Sheol pairing in the wisdom corpus reinforcing the name's currency as a designation of the destructive underworld behind Rev 9:11.

Sheol and Abaddon are before Yahweh— how much more then the hearts of the children of men!


The personified 'Destroyer' (ha-mashchit; LXX ho olothreuon) who passes through Egypt at Passover lies behind the title Apollyon ('Destroyer') in 9:11 — and behind the sparing of the forehead-sealed (9:4), since the Destroyer passes over the marked. Typological link between the destroying angel and the abyss-king.

For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.


Amos's locust-swarm vision of judgment ('he formed locusts') is part of the prophetic locust-as-judgment tradition John draws on; faint and generic, contested as an independent source given the dominance of Joel and Exodus.

Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest.


Nahum likens Nineveh's officials to swarming locusts that settle then flee; part of the locust-army-of-judgment topos. Faint, generic background to the locust-as-invading-host imagery of 9:7-10.

Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.


'I will fill you with men like locusts' — equating an invading army with locusts, the same conceptual fusion John performs (locusts shaped like cavalry). Faint, supports the army=locust metaphor rather than supplying specific diction.

Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you.


Midian and the eastern peoples lay 'thick as locusts' for multitude — the locust-host-as-innumerable-army simile resonant with 9:3-10. Generic background image; low confidence as a discrete source.

The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude.


'The great river Euphrates' (9:14) is a fixed biblical phrase marking the ideal eastern boundary of the promised land (Gen 15:18 'to the great river, the river Euphrates'; LXX tou potamou tou megalou Euphratou). John's identical formula loads the Euphrates with covenant-boundary and threat-from-the-east significance (the direction of Israel's historic invaders).

In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:


Isaiah's eschatological drying/striking of 'the River' (Euphrates) to open a way echoes the Euphrates as the threshold the eastern hordes cross; the bound-then-freed angels at the river (9:14-15) work the same geography of judgment unleashed across the Euphrates. Cf. Rev 16:12 explicitly drying the Euphrates for kings from the east.

Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.


'The horns of the golden altar which is before God' (9:13) draws on the golden altar of incense with its four horns set before the LORD (Exod 30:1-3; cf. 30:10 atonement on its horns). The voice issuing from the altar's horns ties the trumpet judgment to the prayers/incense of the saints (Rev 8:3-5). Verbal and cultic correspondence.

“You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood. Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.


Blood placed on 'the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD' — the sacrificial-horns idiom underlying 'the horns of the golden altar' in 9:13, reinforcing the Exodus 30 incense-altar background of the avenging voice.

The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before Yahweh, which is in the Tent of Meeting; and he shall pour out all of rest of the blood of the bull at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the Tent of Meeting.


The lethal triad fire/smoke/sulfur from the horses' mouths (9:17-18) reworks the LORD raining 'sulfur and fire' on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24, LXX theion kai pyr), with the smoke of 19:28 completing the triad. The Sodom destruction pattern is the archetypal model for sulfurous divine judgment in Revelation (cf. 14:10; 19:20; 21:8).

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.


'On the wicked he will rain coals, fire, and sulfur' (Ps 11:6 [LXX 10:6]) supplies the fire-and-sulfur judgment formula behind the three plagues of 9:17-18; reinforces the Sodom-pattern of brimstone judgment. LXX pyr kai theion parallels Rev's pyr... theion.

On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.


The cavalry's lion-headed mouths ('horses' heads resembled lions' heads,' 9:17) reprise the lion-toothed locust nation of Joel 1:6 (already echoed in 9:8), binding the sixth-trumpet army to the fifth-trumpet locusts and to Joel's invading host. Lion-mouth imagery of devouring judgment.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.


The composite, monstrous, devouring war-beast with iron teeth that 'devoured and broke in pieces' resonates with the hybrid serpent-tailed, lion-mouthed cavalry of 9:17-19 as an instrument of mass slaughter. Faint; Daniel's beast tradition is broadly present in Revelation but not specifically cued here.

After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, a fourth animal, awesome and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the animals that were before it; and it had ten horns.


The invading horses from Dan whose snorting 'is heard' and who 'devour the land' — the apocalyptic enemy cavalry trampling the people. A prophetic war-horse-of-judgment topos resonant with the 200-million horsemen of 9:16-17. Faint and generic.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.


The Chaldean horses 'swifter than leopards... they fly like an eagle swooping to devour' — the terror-cavalry-of-judgment imagery behind the swarming horsemen of 9:16-17. Faint background to the invading-cavalry motif.

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.


'The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands' supplies the innumerable-heavenly-host idiom behind the hyperbolic 'two hundred million' (dismyriades myriadon) horsemen of 9:16. Faint numerical-host parallel.

The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.


'Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him' — the same myriads-of-myriads formula John uses to count the cavalry (9:16). Possible source of the numerical hyperbole, though applied here to an army of destruction rather than the heavenly court.

A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.


The catalogue of idols 'of silver and gold, the work of human hands' that cannot see, hear, or walk (Ps 115:4-7) is the template for 9:20 — 'the works of their hands... idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood... which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk' (so 9:20 per the WEB fuller form; cf. parallel). Strong verbal correspondence on the materials-list and 'works of their hands.'

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell. They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat.


Near-doublet of Ps 115: idols of silver and gold, work of human hands, with mouths/eyes/ears that do not function. Together with Ps 115 it forms the polemic-against-dead-idols matrix behind 9:20, reinforced by recurrence across the Psalter. LXX wording (erga cheiron anthropon) matches Rev's 'works of their hands.'

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see. They have ears, but they can’t hear; neither is there any breath in their mouths.


Belshazzar's indictment for praising 'the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know' (5:23) supplies the fullest five/six-material idol list closest to Rev 9:20's gold/silver/brass/stone/wood. Strong correspondence including the materials enumeration and the failure-to-honor-God-while-worshiping-idols frame.

but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.


'Gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell' — covenant-curse idol polemic feeding the 9:20 list (wood and stone, works of hands). Reinforces the standard Deuteronomic dead-idol formula behind John's catalogue.

There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.


Judgment 'because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands' — the 'works of their hands' idiom for idolatry that John applies in 9:20 ('the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons'). Idolatry-as-handiwork link.

I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.


'They sacrificed to demons, not to God' (LXX edaimoniois) is the OT root for John's striking gloss that idol-worship is demon-worship (9:20, 'worship demons, and the idols'). Ps 106:37 ('sacrificed their sons to demons') is the parallel. Establishes the demons-behind-idols theology rare in the OT.

They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.


'They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons' (LXX tois daimoniois) — together with Deut 32:17 the scriptural basis for equating idolatry with demon-worship in 9:20. Reinforces, with murders in the vice-list of 9:21, the demonic-bloodshed nexus.

Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.


Isaiah's extended satire on the craftsman who fashions a god from wood and metal that cannot save — the classic 'work of human hands' idol-mockery underlying 9:20's catalogue of materials. Thematic rather than verbatim; supports the dead-idol polemic.

Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. The blacksmith takes an ax, works […]


Carrying idol-images one has made — prophetic idolatry indictment in the broad stream feeding 9:20; faint and generic compared to the Psalm/Daniel catalogues.

You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.


The vice-list of 9:21 — murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, thefts — tracks the Decalogue's second-table prohibitions (you shall not murder / commit adultery / steal), with sorcery added (cf. Exod 22:18). John frames impenitence as persistence in covenant-breaking sins. Echo of the Decalogue's ethical core rather than a quotation.

“You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal.


'You shall not allow a sorceress to live' anchors 'sorceries' (pharmakon) in the 9:21 vice-list within the Torah's condemnation of magic; cf. Deut 18:10-11. Supplements the Decalogue echo with the specifically prohibited sin of pharmakeia.

“You shall not allow a sorceress to live.


'You have struck them, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction... they refused to repent' — the prophetic motif of judgment failing to produce repentance, the precise dynamic of 9:20-21 ('did not repent'). Thematic background to the impenitence frame.

O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.


The fivefold refrain 'yet you did not return to me, declares the LORD' after escalating plagues (famine, drought, blight, pestilence, overthrow like Sodom) is the structural model for 9:20-21: plagues that fail to bring repentance. Strong thematic/structural coherence with the trumpet sequence's purpose.

“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh. “I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered. So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not […]


The rainbow encircling the divine glory (Ezek 1:28, the bow in the cloud) supplies the angel's rainbow-crowned head and luminous appearance; strong on availability/recurrence (Ezekiel pervades Rev) and thematic coherence (theophanic glory). LXX iris matches Rev's iris.

Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. As […]


The radiant heavenly figure with face like lightning/sun, legs/feet like burnished bronze or fire, and a great voice. Verbal volume is high (face, feet/legs of fire, loud voice cluster together), strongly shaping the angel's theophanic description.

I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, whose thighs were adorned with pure gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as flaming torches, and his arms and his feet like burnished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.


The pillar of cloud and pillar of fire of the Exodus theophany underlie the conjunction 'clothed with a cloud' and 'feet like pillars of fire' (stuloi pyros). New-Exodus typology coheres with Revelation's plague structure; thematic coherence strong, verbal echo on 'pillar of fire.'

Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, didn’t depart from before the people.


'The lion has roared; who will not fear?' supplies the prophetic lion-roar simile and its link to inescapable prophetic speech (cf. v.7 prophets). Coheres with the immediately following 'as a lion roars.'

The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?


'He will roar like a lion... his children shall come trembling' associates the divine/messianic roar with the gathering of peoples, anticipating v.11's many peoples. Faint but recurrent lion-roar motif.

They will walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.


'The LORD roars from Zion' (Joel 4:16 MT) couples the divine roar with cosmic upheaval and judgment, fitting the thunder that follows. Thematic coherence with the seven thunders.

Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.


The bow in the cloud as covenant sign of mercy restrains judgment; the rainbow on the angel's head before the oath frames the interlude as grace amid the trumpet plagues. Reinforces the Ezek 1 rainbow.

I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every […]


Sinai thunders (qolot, LXX phonai) accompanying theophany undergird the seven thunders 'uttering their voices.' Faint; the thunder-as-voice idiom is widespread.

On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.


The sevenfold 'voice of the LORD' (qol YHWH) thundering over the waters is a plausible source for the SEVEN thunders specifically; Hebrew structures seven thunderings, a feature less visible in LXX. Contested but suggestive of the number.

Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters. Yahweh’s voice is powerful. Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty. The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox. Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning. Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. […]


The figure who raises his hand(s) to heaven and swears by the one who lives forever is the dominant template; Rev compresses Daniel's two hands to one but keeps the gesture, the oath formula, and the eschatological 'time' question. Very high verbal volume and recurrence.

I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.


'I lift up my hand to heaven and say, As I live forever' is the source oath formula behind 'lifted up his right hand... swore by him who lives forever.' Strong verbal correspondence (hand to heaven + living-forever oath).

For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,


'Seal up the words... shut up the book' directly underlies 'Seal up the things which the seven thunders said.' Inverts/echoes Daniel's sealing; Rev 22:10 later unseals. High thematic and verbal coherence.

But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run back and forth, and knowledge shall be increased.”


'the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end' reinforces the sealing command of v.4 and the 'mystery finished' of v.7. Recurrence of Dan 12 cluster strengthens the reading.

He said, Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.


'Surely the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret (sod) to his servants the prophets' is echoed almost verbatim in 'the mystery of God... as he declared to his servants, the prophets.' Strong verbal volume.

Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.


The question 'how long until the end of these wonders?' is answered by the angel's oath 'there will no longer be delay,' tying Rev's oath to Daniel's interrogation of the man clothed in linen. Coheres with vv.4,7,9.

One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?


'the vision... will not delay (lo yeacher)' / LXX 'it will not delay' underlies 'there will no longer be delay (chronos).' The LXX rendering with chronos/delay strengthens the verbal link; flagged LXX-vs-Hebrew (MT 'tarry', LXX delay) divergence.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay.

For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry.


'you have made heaven... the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them' is the closest creation-formula parallel to the triadic 'heaven... earth... sea and the things in them' of the oath. Strong verbal volume for the creation clause.

You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.


'the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them' supplies the Decalogue creation triad sworn by; alternative or parallel source to Neh 9:6 for the same formula.

for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.


'who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever' couples the creation triad with the everlasting-living God, paralleling both halves of the oath.

who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;


'I blessed... him who lives forever' (Nebuchadnezzar's doxology) is a further attestation of the 'living forever' divine epithet sworn by here; faint, reinforces Dan 12:7 and Deut 32:40.

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.


Abram 'lifted up my hand to the LORD, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth' combines the raised-hand oath with the creator epithet, a faint patriarchal antecedent of the gesture-plus-creation oath.

Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,


The prophet commanded to take and eat the scroll, which is 'in your mouth as sweet as honey,' is the controlling source for the whole eating-the-scroll scene. Highest verbal volume and recurrence in the chapter; Rev adds the bitterness in the stomach.

But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don’t be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you. When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein; He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the […]


'Go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them' commissions the prophet immediately after eating the scroll, paralleling 'You must prophesy again' in v.11. Continues the Ezek 2-3 commissioning sequence.

He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.


'I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit' after the scroll supplies the bitterness Rev locates in the stomach, a detail absent from Ezek 3:3 itself. Explains Rev's bitter/sweet contrast as a fusion of Ezek 3:3 and 3:14.

So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.


'I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms' supplies the universal scope ('many peoples, nations... and kings') of the renewed prophetic commission in v.11. Coheres with Jeremiah's call narrative.

Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”


'Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became... the joy of my heart' parallels ingesting the divine word as sweet; reinforces the Ezekiel scroll-eating with a Jeremianic eating-the-word motif.

Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.


'How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth' supplies the sweetness-as-honey simile for the ingested word. Strong verbal echo on 'sweet as honey in my mouth.'

How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!


'all peoples, nations, and languages' is Daniel's fourfold/threefold universal formula, recurring in Rev's 'many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.' Rev's list is a Danielic idiom though not from this verse alone.

There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


The continuation of Ezekiel's sign-acts after the scroll (siege of Jerusalem) frames eating-the-scroll as prelude to enacted prophecy against peoples; faint structural echo supporting the 'prophesy again' commission.

You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:


God's ordinances are 'sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb,' a second honey-sweetness-of-the-word parallel alongside Ps 119:103; faint, reinforces the simile.

More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.


The measuring reed (kalamos / qaneh) given to a visionary to measure the temple is the controlling image; Ezekiel's bronze-bright man with a 'measuring reed' (40:3,5) measures the eschatological temple. Strong on volume (the rare measuring-reed motif), recurrence (Ezekiel's temple tour recurs across Rev's new-temple theology), and thematic coherence. LXX kalamos metrou matches Rev's kalamos.

He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. The man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may show them to you, you are brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel. Behold, a wall on the outside […]


The man with a measuring line sent 'to measure Jerusalem.' Reinforces the prophetic measuring-for-protection topos; in Zechariah measuring marks the city as guarded by God. High coherence with Rev's protective measuring of worshipers even as the outer court is surrendered. Hebrew chevel middah / LXX schoinion geometrikon (a line, not a reed) — note the instrument diverges (line vs. reed), so Ezekiel is the closer verbal parallel.

I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length.”


The sanctuary and host 'trampled underfoot' (LXX katapateo) for a fixed number of days; Rev's 'tread the holy city under foot' echoes this Danielic profanation-of-the-holy-place with a numbered duration. Strong on the trampling verb and the apocalyptic time-limit structure.

Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, How long shall be the vision about the continual burnt offering, and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the army to be trodden under foot?


Forty-two months = 'time, times, and half a time' (3.5 years), the Danielic measure of the saints handed over to the oppressor. Recurs across Rev (11:2,3; 12:6,14; 13:5). Coherence with the broader Daniel-7 beast/persecution matrix is strong; the numerical symbolism is the load-bearing link.

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.


'A time, times, and half a time' for the shattering of the holy people — the parallel Danielic statement of the 3.5-year limit underlying the forty-two months. Slightly fainter than 7:25 as the verbal source but thematically twinned.

I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.


Adversaries have 'trodden down' the sanctuary; supplies the OT lament-tradition of the holy place trampled by enemies that colors Rev's 'tread the holy city under foot.' Coherent but more diffuse than Dan 8:13.

Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.


The nations have entered God's inheritance, defiled the holy temple, and reduced Jerusalem to rubble; grounds the 'given to the nations' / holy-city motif of Rev 11:2 in the temple-desecration lament. Provides the 'nations' (ethne) trampling Jerusalem complex.

God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.


The measuring of the temple's surrounding wall to 'separate the holy from the common' — possible background for distinguishing the measured sanctuary from the unmeasured, surrendered outer court. Faint; conceptual only.

He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall around it, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.


Measuring/marking out sacred and civic space; very faint conceptual contribution to the measuring-for-allotment imagery. Included for maximal coverage.

You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the suburbs of their cities.


The two olive trees and (in Rev) two lampstands 'standing before the Lord of the whole earth' is a near-verbatim adoption of Zechariah's vision of the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord. Highest volume and distinctiveness in the pericope; Rev splits Zechariah's single lampstand into two but keeps 'standing before the Lord of the earth' as a fixed tag. LXX 'two sons of fatness' (oil) = the anointed pair.

Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lamp stand and on the left side of it?” I asked him the second time, “What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that pour the golden oil out of themselves?” He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”


The lampstand flanked by two olive trees supplying oil — the source image Rev compresses into 'two olive trees and two lampstands.' Together with 4:11–14 this is the structural backbone of the witnesses' identity.

He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are on the top of it; and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”


Elijah's power to 'shut up the sky' so it does not rain — Rev's witnesses literally have 'power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain.' One witness is figured on Elijah. Strong verbal and thematic coherence; recurrence with the drought of 1 Kings 17–18 and Luke 4:25 / James 5:17 tradition.

Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”


Moses turning the waters to blood (first plague) — Rev's witnesses have 'power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague.' The other witness is figured on Moses. The plague-language ('strike... with every plague,' plege) is distinctively Exodus. LXX haima for the Nile-to-blood sign.

Thus says Yahweh, “In this you shall know that I am Yahweh. Behold, I will strike with the rod that is in my hand on the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. The fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river.”’” Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their […]


Elijah calls down fire from heaven that consumes those sent to seize him; Rev's 'fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies' fuses this Elijah fire-judgment with the prophetic word. Strong on the fire-consumes-enemies motif and the Elijah figural pairing.

Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” Fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.


God makes his word in Jeremiah's mouth 'fire' that devours the people 'like wood' — supplies the specific image of fire issuing from the prophet's mouth (logos-as-fire), which 2 Kings alone does not (there fire falls from heaven). Best verbal explanation of 'fire proceeds out of their mouth.' LXX pyr in the prophet's mouth.

Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.


1,260 days = the 3.5-year Danielic measure (here as days rather than months, cf. 11:2). Ties the witnesses' prophetic period to the saints' appointed time of testimony/oppression. Recurrent across Rev's time-symbolism.


The expected return of Elijah before the day of the Lord undergirds the eschatological-prophet typology applied to the witnesses; supports the Elijah identification beyond 1–2 Kings. Coherent with Rev's two-witness/Elijah figure.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”


Valid testimony requires 'two witnesses'; the legal two-witness norm plausibly motivates Rev's pairing (martyres) and the courtroom 'testimony' language of 11:7. Conceptual rather than verbal.

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.


Fire from the LORD devours the rebels against Moses — a Mosaic counterpart to the Elijah fire-judgment, reinforcing 'fire... devours their enemies' from the Moses side of the pairing. Faint; secondary to Jer 5:14 and 2 Kings 1.

Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.


Sackcloth as the garb of mourning/penitential prophecy (broadly OT, e.g. also Isa 22:12; Jonah 3:5). 'Clothed in sackcloth' draws on the general prophetic-mourning convention rather than one verse; cited as representative. Faint.

Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.


The horn/beast 'made war with the saints and prevailed against them' — Rev's 'the beast... will make war with them, and overcome them' is a near-quotation, including the verb 'make war' and 'overcome/prevail.' Strong volume and recurrence (cf. Rev 13:7). LXX/Theodotion epoiei polemon... katischysen.

I saw, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;


The beasts 'come up' from the sea/deep; Rev's 'beast that comes up out of the abyss' fuses this Danielic ascent-of-the-beast with the Abyss motif. Supports the beast's provenance imagery.

Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.


The bodies of God's servants given as food, blood poured out 'and no one to bury them' — Rev's corpses left unburied 'in the street' and denied a tomb directly enacts this lament of the unburied dead. Strong thematic coherence with the desecration of the slain saints. LXX preserves the 'none to bury' motif.

They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.


Sodom as the type-city of wickedness destroyed by God; 'the great city... spiritually called Sodom' names the persecuting city by this archetype. Strong on the figural naming convention Rev signals with 'spiritually (pneumatikos).'

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.


Isaiah addresses Jerusalem's rulers as 'rulers of Sodom' and people as 'people of Gomorrah' — the precedent for applying 'Sodom' figurally to the covenant city. Best explains Rev's pairing of Jerusalem-as-Sodom-and-Egypt and the spiritual renaming.

Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah. Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!


Jerusalem likened to her 'sister Sodom'; reinforces the prophetic tradition of naming the unfaithful holy city 'Sodom.' Coherent supporting witness to Isa 1.

Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. Behold, this was the […]


'Egypt' as the archetypal house of bondage and oppression of God's people; supplies the second half of 'Sodom and Egypt' as a figural name for the persecuting city. Thematic/typological rather than verbal.

The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.


The 'three and a half days' the bodies lie exposed mirrors, in miniature, the 3.5 time-unit of Danielic affliction (years/months/days across the chapter). The half-week of death/dishonor compresses the persecution measure. Symbolic link.

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.