Revelation 19:7

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-10 Praising God for what we have, is praying for what is yet further to be done for us. There is harmony between the angels and the saints in this triumphant song. Christ is the Bridegroom of his ransomed church. This second union will be completed in heaven; but the beginning of the glorious millennium (by which is meant a reign of Christ, or a state of happiness, for a thousand years on earth) may be considered as the celebration of his espousals on earth. Then the church of Christ, being purified from errors, divisions, and corruptions, in doctrine, discipline, worship, and practice, will be made ready to be publicly owned by him as his delight and his beloved. The church appeared; not in the gay, gaudy dress of the mother of harlots, but in fine linen, clean and white. In the robes of Christ's righteousness, imputed for justification, and imparted for sanctification. The promises of the gospel, the true sayings of God, opened, applied, and sealed by the Spirit of God, in holy ordinances, are the marriage-feast. This seems to refer to the abundant grace and consolation Christians will receive in the happy days which are to come. The apostle offered honour to the angel. The angel refused it. He directed the apostle to the true and only object of religious worship; to worship God, and him alone. This plainly condemns the practice of those who worship the elements of bread and wine, and saints, and angels; and of those who do not believe that Christ is truly and by nature God, yet pay him a sort of worship. They stand convicted of idolatry by a messenger from heaven. These are the true sayings of God; of Him who is to be worshipped, as one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let us be glad and rejoice - Let all in heaven rejoice - for all have an interest in the triumph of truth; all should be glad that the government of God is set up over an apostate world.

And give honour to him - Because the work is glorious; and became it is by his power alone that it has been accomplished. See the notes on Revelation 5:12.

For the marriage of the Lamb is come - Of the Lamb of God - the Redeemer of the world. See the notes on Revelation 5:6. The relation of God, and especially of the Messiah, to the church, is often in the Scriptures represented under the image of marriage. See the Isaiah 54:4-6; Isaiah 62:4-5 notes; 2 Corinthians 11:2 note; Ephesians 5:23-33 note. Compare Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 31:32; Hosea 2:19-20. The idea is also said to be common in Arabic and Persian poetry. It is to be remembered, also, that papal Rome has just been represented as a frivolous and meretricious woman; and there is a propriety, therefore, in representing the true church as a pure bride, the Lamb's wife, and the final triumph of that church as a joyous marriage. The meaning is, that the church was now to triumph and rejoice as if in permanent union with her glorious head and Lord.

And his wife hath made herself ready - By putting on her beautiful apparel and ornaments. All the preparations had been made for a permanent and uninterrupted union with its Redeemer, and the church was henceforward to be recognized as his beautiful bride, and was no more to appear as a decorated harlot - as it had during the papal supremacy. Between the church under the papacy, and the church in its true form, there is all the difference which there is between an abandoned woman gaily decked with gold and jewels, and a pure virgin chastely and modestly adorned, about to be led to be united in bonds of love to a virtuous husband,

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. glad … rejoice—Greek, "rejoice … exult."

give—so B and Andreas. But A reads, "we will give."

glory—Greek, "the glory."

the marriage of the Lamb is come—The full and final consummation is at Re 21:2-9, &c. Previously there must be the overthrow of the beast, &c., at the Lord's coming, the binding of Satan, the millennial reign, the loosing of Satan and his last overthrow, and the general judgment. The elect-Church, the heavenly Bride, soon after the destruction of the harlot, is transfigured at the Lord's coming, and joins with Him in His triumph over the beast. On the emblem of the heavenly Bridegroom and Bride, compare Mt 22:2; 25:6, 10; 2Co 11:2. Perfect union with Him personally, and participation in His holiness; joy, glory, and kingdom, are included in this symbol of "marriage"; compare Song of Solomon everywhere. Besides the heavenly Bride, the transfigured, translated, and risen Church, reigning over the earth with Christ, there is also the earthly bride, Israel, in the flesh, never yet divorced, though for a time separated, from her divine husband, who shall then be reunited to the Lord, and be the mother Church of the millennial earth, Christianized through her. Note, we ought, as Scripture does, restrict the language drawn from marriage-love to the Bride, the Church as a whole; not use it as individuals in our relation to Christ, which Rome does in the case of her nuns. Individually, believers are effectually-called guests; collectively, they constitute the bride. The harlot divides her affections among many lovers: the bride gives hers exclusively to Christ.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A late reverend author tells us: That as there is a three-fold resurrection mentioned in Scripture;

1. A rising to a newness of life, Ephesians 5:14;

2. The conversion of the Jews, called life from the dead, Romans 11:15;

3. In the end of the world:

so there is a threefold marriage of the Lamb;

1. To particular souls, when by faith they are united to Christ;

2. To his church completed, when the Jews shall be called;

3. When all his elect shall be made one with him in glory, after the general resurrection.

He seemeth to understand it of all these. Probably the conversion of the Jews stayeth for the fall of the papacy, whose worship and persecution are great scandals to them. Probably also, upon the fall of it, many will be converted besides the Jews, and the general resurrection will not be far off. The learned Dr. More seems to restrain it to the Jews’ conversion; I had rather understand it more generally.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him,.... The saints particularly; the converted Jews will call upon one another to express their gladness at the glorious display of Christ's kingly power and authority, and at the destruction of his enemies, and the happy and comfortable state of his church and people; and to rejoice in him as the Lord their righteousness and strength, and to give him the honour and glory of salvation, and to return him thanks for all the benefits they shall have received from him, particularly on account of what follows:

for the marriage of the Lamb is come; that is, of Christ, the Son of God, with the Jewish church more especially; there was a secret betrothing of all the elect to Christ before the world began; and there is an open espousal of every individual of them at conversion; but the public and general solemnization of the nuptials will not be until the new Jerusalem church state takes place in the personal reign of Christ, hereafter mentioned, Revelation 21:1 but here, and as previous to that, there will be a very general and open marriage of Christ with the people of the Jews, who have long rejected and forsaken him; for if the conversion of a single person may be called a marriage with Christ, much more the conversion of such members; and which is often prophesied of under this metaphor of a marriage, as in Isaiah 62:4. And now the time will be come for the accomplishment of it, the evidence of which follows:

and his wife hath made herself ready, or "dressed herself"; by decking herself with jewels, and putting on her wedding garment provided for her, and given to her by her husband, the Lamb, as appears from the next verse: this preparation will lie partly in the number of converts that will be brought into the Jewish church, which she will receive and clothe herself with, as with the ornament of a bride, Isaiah 49:18 and partly by the exercise of the several graces of the Spirit upon Christ, comparable to the jewels of a bride, with which she will be adorned for her husband; and also by putting on the robe of his righteousness, hereafter mentioned, which the old Jewish synagogue rejected, and therefore was cast off, Romans 10:3. The Arabic version reads, "the marriage of the Lamb is now come with his spouse, prepared for him"; and the Ethiopic version, "the marriage of his Lamb is come, and the wife is prepared"; and that her preparation is not by her own merits and works of righteousness, but by the grace of her husband, is clear from the following verse. Mr. Daubuz, by "the marriage of the Lamb", understands the first resurrection, and the state of the church at that time; and by "the fine linen", the dress of the church, next mentioned, the incorruptible body of the saints compared to a garment, 1 Corinthians 15:53 and by those who are afterwards said to be "called to the marriage", the converted nations in a mortal state: but all the saints will share in the first resurrection; besides, as yet the beast and false prophet are not destroyed, which must be before the first resurrection, as the following vision shows.

Geneva Study Bible

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath {7} made herself ready.

(7) Namely, to that holy marriage, both herself in person in this verse, and also provided by her spouse with marriage gifts princely and divine, is adorned and prepared in the next verse.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Revelation 19:7. A proleptic allusion to the triumphant bliss as a marriage between the victorious messiah and his people or the new Jerusalem (cf. Volz, 331). The conception is primarily eschatological (Weinel, p. 137; cf. Mechilta on Exodus 19:17) and is so employed here. The marriage-day of Christ and his church is the day of his second advent. This is the more intimate and tender aspect of the divine βασιλεία. But, as a traditional feature of the Oriental myth (Jeremiah , 45 f.) was the postponement of the deity’s wedding until he returned from victory (i.e., after vanquishing the darkness and cold of the winter), the religious application turns first of all to the overthrow of messiah’s foes (Revelation 19:11 f.).—ἀγαλλιῶμεν, act. as in 1 Peter 1:8 (cf. Abbott, Diatessarica, 2, 689).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The Marriage of the Lamb, Revelation 19:7-97. honour] Better, the glory.

the marriage of the Lamb] The first suggestion of this image in the N. T. is in our Lord’s parables, St Matthew 22:2; Matthew 25:1-10 : it is more fully worked out by St Paul, Ephesians 5:22-32. But men’s minds were prepared for it by the language of all the Prophets about the spiritual marriage of the Lord and Israel: still more, perhaps, by that of the 45th Psalm, rising so far above the royal marriage that no doubt furnished its occasion. And there is little doubt that the Song of Songs was already mystically interpreted among the Jews, though its claim to a place in the Canon was still disputed.

his wife] Called by St John the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:2, by St Paul both by that name, Galatians 4:26, and more simply the Church, Ephesians 5:23 sqq.

Bengel's Gnomen

Revelation 19:7. [210] Ἡτοίμασεν ἑαυτὴν, hath prepared herself) that is, hath begun to prepare herself; as τεπίστευκα, ἠγάπηκα, ἤλπικα, I have obtained faith, etc. Respecting the marriage itself, see ch. Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9, etc.

[210] 6. καὶ, and) The stirring call brought forward in ver. 5, Hallelujah! is now fully responded to.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him. Alford reads δώσομεν, "we will give," with א, A. P, 36; but the T.R. δῶμεν, "let us give," which is found in א, B, 1, 7, 38, Vulgate, Cyprian, Primasius, is to be preferred. For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. This is somewhat anticipatory; the full vision of the bride of the Lamb is reserved until Revelation 21. But the rejoicing over Babylon and the harlot naturally suggests the allusion to Christ's faithful Church, just as the vision of Revelation 7. is suggested by the concluding words of Revelation 6. "The marriage of the Lamb" is the figure under which is depicted that complete union between Christ and his faithful Church, which will be consummated at the last day, when Satan has been overcome and sin destroyed. It stands in contrast with the fornication of the harlot - the union of the spiritually unfaithful portion of Christ's Church with the powers of the world (see on Revelation 17:1, 2). Alford remarks, "This figure, of a marriage between the Lord and his people, is too frequent and familiar to need explanation (cf. in the Old Testament, Isaiah 54:1-8; Ezekiel 16:7, etc.; Hosea 2:19, etc.; and in the New Testament, Matthew 9:15; Matthew 25:1, etc.; John 3:29; Ephesians 5:25, etc.)." This symbol of the wife or bride indicates the redeemed, who have already in several places been alluded to in this book (Revelation 7:9; Revelation 12:1; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 17:14, "they that are with him"). The saints have made themselves ready by enduing themselves with the robe of righteousness (ver. 8). Revelation 19:7

Vincent's Word Studies

The marriage of the Lamb

For the figure, compare Isaiah 54:1-8; Ezekiel 16:7-14; Hosea 2:19; Matthew 9:15; John 3:29; Ephesians 5:25.