Revelation 14:20

20 They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.^[a]

Revelation 14:20 in Other Translations

20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

20 The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.

20 The winepress was outside the City. As the vintage was trodden, blood poured from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle, a river of blood for two hundred miles.

20 And the winepress are trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

20 The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city. Blood flowed out of the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1,600 stadia.

20 Then the press was trampled outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press up to the horses' bridles for about 180 miles.

20 In the winepress outside the city, the grapes were stomped on. Blood flowed out of the pit. It spread over the land for about 180 miles. It rose as high as the horses' heads.

Revelation 14:20 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 14:20

And the winepress was trodden without the city
The beloved city, the new Jerusalem, into which none of the wicked will enter, and without which are dogs ( Revelation 20:9 ) ( 21:27 ) ( 22:15 ) . The allusion may be, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, to the olive presses, which were without the city of Jerusalem, from whence Gethsemane had its name, whither our Lord went, and where his sorrows began the night he was betrayed: hell is sometimes expressed by outer darkness, and said to be far off from heaven, and between the one and the other a great gulf is fixed, the distance is considerable; hence men are said to go forth to behold the miseries of the wicked; see ( Matthew 22:13 ) ( Luke 16:23 Luke 16:26 ) ( Isaiah 66:24 ) .

and blood came out of the winepress;
alluding to the juice squeezed out of grapes, called the blood of grapes, ( Genesis 49:11 ) .

Even unto the horses' bridles, for the space of a thousand and six
hundred furlongs;
which is only an hyperbolical expression, setting forth the largeness and universality of the destruction of the wicked, and the impossibility of their escaping it. In like manner the Jews express a great slaughter of men; so of the slaughter at Bither, by Adrian, they say ^F5, they went on slaying (wmjwx-de Mdb) (owoh eqvv de) , "until a horse plunged in blood up to his nostrils", and the blood ran four miles into the sea; which is not to be understood literally, but as expressing a prodigious effusion of blood: and as to

the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs,
perhaps there may be an allusion to the measure of the land of Israel, and the common notion of it among the Jews, who make it to be the square of four hundred parsoe ^F6: hence they often speak of the land of Israel shaking and moving four hundred "parsoe", upon some extraordinary occasions ^F7; and a "parsa" contained four miles ^F8, so that four hundred "parsoe" made a thousand and six hundred miles; and if miles and furlongs are the same, in which sense only the land of Israel could be so large, here is the exact space; for Jerom ^F9, who was an inhabitant of it, says, it was scarce 160 miles in length, to which agrees R. Menachem ^F11; and it may be observed, that the Arabic version renders the words, "by the space of a thousand and six hundred miles". The Ethiopic version, very wrongly, reads, "sixteen furlongs".

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 T. Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 69. 1.
F6 T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 28. 1. Gloss. in ib.
F7 T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 3. 1. & Bava Kama, fol. 82. 2. & Menachot, fol. 64. 2.
F8 T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 92. 2. Gloss. in ib.
F9 Ad Dardanum, fol. 22. 1. Tom. 3.
F11 In Gen. fol. 60.

Revelation 14:20 In-Context

18 Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”

19 The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.

20 They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

Cross References

• 1. ver 19; Isaiah 63:3; Joel 3:13; Revelation 19:15
• 2. Hebrews 13:12; Revelation 11:8
• 3. Genesis 49:11; Deuteronomy 32:14

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, about 180 miles or about 300 kilometers