Revelation 2:22

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) I will cast her into a bed.—The chamber of voluptuousness will become the chamber of sickness. The spot of the sin shall be the scene of punishment. (Comp. 1Kings 21:19.)

Benson Commentary

Revelation 2:22-23. Behold — I will at length execute judgment upon her, and let the process of my righteous vengeance be observed. I will cast her into a bed — Not of pleasure, but of great tribulation — I will severely punish these seducers for their evil principles and practices; and this punishment shall reach all who have been partakers in such acts of wickedness: and this threatening shall be accomplished as surely as the punishment was which the Prophet Elijah denounced in the name of the Lord against Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:23. Except they repent, &c. — Except they be humbled for, and forsake their vile practices. And I will kill her children — I will slay those that presume to follow her in her wickedness; with death — An expression which denotes death by the plague, or by some manifest stroke of God’s hand. Probably the remarkable vengeance taken on these was the token of the certainty of all the rest. And all the churches — To which thou now writest; shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins — The desires; and hearts — Thoughts; and that though I am very long- suffering with respect to many sinners, and am unwilling immediately to come to extremities; yet I am not to be mocked and trifled with; and therefore they will learn to respect and honour the administration of my government; who, as I know the secrets of men’s hearts, so I will at length give unto every one of you according to your works — And according to those principles from which I know they have proceeded; and thus I will approve the perfect justice of my treatment of you all. It is observable, the angel of the church at Thyatira was only blamed for suffering such deceivers to seduce Christ’s servants. This fault ceased when God took vengeance on these seducers. Therefore he is not expressly exhorted to repent, though that is implied.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:18-29 Even when the Lord knows the works of his people to be wrought in love, faith, zeal, and patience; yet if his eyes, which are as a flame of fire, observe them committing or allowing what is evil, he will rebuke, correct, or punish them. Here is praise of the ministry and people of Thyatira, by One who knew the principles from which they acted. They grew wiser and better. All Christians should earnestly desire that their last works may be their best works. Yet this church connived at some wicked seducers. God is known by the judgments he executes; and by this upon seducers, he shows his certain knowledge of the hearts of men, of their principles, designs, frame, and temper. Encouragement is given to those who kept themselves pure and undefiled. It is dangerous to despise the mystery of God, and as dangerous to receive the mysteries of Satan. Let us beware of the depths of Satan, of which those who know the least are the most happy. How tender Christ is of his faithful servants! He lays nothing upon his servants but what is for their good. There is promise of an ample reward to the persevering, victorious believer; also knowledge and wisdom, suitable to their power and dominion. Christ brings day with him into the soul, the light of grace and of glory, in the presence and enjoyment of him their Lord and Saviour. After every victory let us follow up our advantage against the enemy, that we may overcome and keep the works of Christ to the end.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, I will cast her into a bed - Not into a bed of ease, but a bed of pain. There is evidently a purpose to contrast this with her former condition. The harlot's bed and a sick-bed are thus brought together, as they are often, in fact, in the dispensations of Providence and the righteous judgments of God. One cannot be indulged without leading on, sooner or later, to the horrid sufferings of the other: and how soon no one knows.

And them that commit adultery with her - Those who are seduced by her doctrines into this sin; either they who commit it with her literally, or who are led into the same kind of life.

Into great tribulation - Great suffering; disease of body or tortures of the soul. How often - how almost uniformly is this the case with those who thus live! Sooner or later, sorrow always comes upon the licentious; and God has evinced by some of his severest judgments, in forms of frightful disease, his displeasure at the violation of the laws of purity. There is no sin that produces a mere withering and desolating effect upon the soul than what is here referred to; none which is more certain to be followed with sorrow.

Except they repent of their deeds - It is only by repentance that we can avoid the consequences of sin. The word "repent" here evidently includes both sorrow for the past, and abandonment of the evil course of life.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. Behold—calling attention to her awful doom to come.

I will—Greek present, "I cast her."

a bed—The place of her sin shall be the place of her punishment. The bed of her sin shall be her bed of sickness and anguish. Perhaps a pestilence was about to be sent. Or the bed of the grave, and of the hell beyond, where the worm dieth not.

them that commit adultery with her—spiritually; including both the eating of idol-meats and fornication. "With her," in the Greek, implies participation with her in her adulteries, namely, by suffering her (Re 2:20), or letting her alone, and so virtually encouraging her. Her punishment is distinct from theirs; she is to be cast into a bed, and her children to be killed; while those who make themselves partakers of her sin by tolerating her, are to be cast into great tribulation.

except they repent—Greek aorist, "repent" at once; shall have repented by the time limited in My purpose.

their deeds—Two of the oldest manuscripts and most ancient versions read "her." Thus, God's true servants, who by connivance, are incurring the guilt of her deeds, are distinguished from her. One oldest manuscript, Andreas, and Cyprian, support "their."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will cast her into a bed; another kind of bed than she hath sinned in and by, not a bed of ease and pleasure, but of pain and torment. Nor shall the seduced escape, they shall also be cast into

great tribulation, pains and torments of conscience, or afflictions more corporal, either from the more immediate hand of God, or the hands of men.

Except they repent of their deeds; this is to be supposed to all God’s threatenings of judgments, the execution of them ordinarily may be prevented by repentance, and such is the patience of God, that he gives the vilest sinners a space to repent.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Behold, I will cast her into a bed,.... Of sickness and languishing; and which denotes the sickly, pining, and languishing state of the church of Rome, as a just retaliation for her bed of luxury and deliciousness, adultery and idolatry, she had indulged herself in; this was threatened, and was yet to come, and began at the time of the Reformation, signified by the next church state; and, ever since, the whore of Rome has been visibly sickening and decaying. The Alexandrian copy reads, "into a prison":

and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation: the kings of the earth, and their subjects, who have joined in the idolatries and corruptions of the Romish church, Revelation 17:2, which may be understood either of that distress and uneasiness the Reformation in some countries gave them; or those outward troubles, wars, and desolations they have been since attended with, particularly the empire of Germany; which has been in great tribulation, formerly by the Turks, and of late by internal broils among themselves, and by the armies of other princes entering into it; or it may regard that eternal vengeance that will be recompensed to all such persons:

except they repent of their deeds; their spiritual fornication or idolatry, and all the abominations the members of that apostate church are guilty of. There seems to be an allusion in this verse to Ahaziah and Joram, sons of Ahab and Jezebel, who followed their mother's idolatrous practices, and were cast upon a bed of sickness, 2 Kings 1:2.

Geneva Study Bible

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Revelation 2:22-23. The ἰδού so strongly emphasizes the succeeding threat, and makes us so to expect something new in comparison with Revelation 2:21, that the discredited ἐγώ appears in an exegetical respect entirely superfluous.

Already the βάλλω αὐτ. shows that the κλίνη is a bed which the woman takes only when so compelled. Yet the κλίνη does not designate the punishments in hell,[1251] but the sick-bed,[1252] in opposition to the bed of sensuality. But by this description of such judgment, the reference to Jezebel and her entirely different[1253] punishment is abandoned,[1254] so that even in Revelation 2:23, in the words Κ. Τ. ΤΈΚΝΑ ΑὐΤ., an allusion to the destruction of the sons of Ahab[1255] dare not be sought. The punishment of the woman and her companions, without regard to the significant designation existing in the name Jezebel, is determined in accordance with the manner of their sins. It is to be observed, however, that the expression now chosen, ΜΟΙΧΕΎΕΙΝ

Τ. ΜΟΙΧ. ΜΕΤʼ ΑὐΤῆς, i.e., those who shared in her deeds,[1256] designates the entire conduct of the woman and her party in a double sense, embracing the ΠΟΡΝΕΊΑ and the ΦΑΓ. ΕἸΔΩΛ., since the ethnicizing disorder must be punished more than adultery in a theocratical-symbolical sense, as in fact actual fornication was what was chiefly designed. Thus the ΜΟΙΧΕΎΟΝΤΕς ΜΕΤʼ ἈΥΤῆς are those who perform ΤᾺ ἜΡΓΑ ΑὐΤῆς, i.e., the works taught and practised by the woman; or as in Revelation 2:23 it is again said, according to another application of the symbolical idea,[1257] ΤᾺ ΤΈΚΝΑ ΑὐΤῆς,[1258] and therefore not actually bastards.[1259] Incorrectly, N. de Lyra: gehenna. It is possible to think of a pest,[1260] because the LXX. have rendered the Heb. דֶּבֶר, Ezekiel 33:27, by ΘΆΝΑΤΟς. Meanwhile it is sufficient to leave the matter in its universality; the entire formula ἈΠΟΚΤ. ἘΝ ΘΑΝΆΤῼ then in its fulness corresponds in some measure to the Hebrew mode of combining an infin. with the finite tense of its root, as, e.g., Leviticus 20:10, where the punishment of adultery is stated מות־יומַת (LXX., ΘΑΝἈΤῷ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΎς ΘΩΣΑΝ). But any allusion to this precise passage is, to say the least, doubtful. The independence of the Johannean formula, notwithstanding its adoption, of Hebraic modes of statement, lies partly in the distinction between the words ἈΠΟΚΤΕΝῶ and ΘΑΝἈΤῷ, and partly in the fact that by the addition of the preposition ἘΝ the precise idea of the means[1261] is marked.

ΚΑῚ ΓΝΏΣΟΝΤΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ. Every judgment of the Lord upon the world is a revelation of his glory, and has the intentional result to advance and strengthen believers more and more in their knowledge. Thus the idea of the ΓΝΩΣ. is entirely too general[1262] to admit of any special opposition to the false gnosis[1263] of the Nicolaitans. It is different with Revelation 2:24.

ΠᾶΣΑΙ ΑΊ ἘΚΚΛ. Not only the Asiatic;[1264] but rather, as the judgment upon false teachers in Thyatira is an act which belongs to the coming of the Lord, so also this special act shares in the absolutely universal significance of Christ’s final appearance.

ὍΤΙ ἘΓΏ ΕἸΜΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ. A forcible designation of the person of whom so great a thing is said as Ὁ ΕῤΕΎΝΩΝ, Κ.Τ.Λ. Cf. Psalm 7:10. The Son of God who executes judgment (ΚΑῚ ΔΈΣΩ, Κ.Τ.Λ.) has also the divine attribute of searching the deepest recesses of man, and thus the condition for just judgment,[1265] as he has both eyes as a flame of fire, and feet like brass.[1266]

ΝΕΦΡΟῪς ΚΑῚ ΚΑΡΔΊΑς. According to Grot. and Beng., the former is intended to designate the desires, and the latter the thoughts. But the expression designates rather the entire inner part without any distinction of the two points.

ὙΜῖΝ. An animated turn to those guilty.[1267] Cf. Revelation 2:24.

ΚΑΤᾺ ΤᾺ ἜΡΓΑ ὙΜΩΝ. Because the Lord, who recognizes the inner source of the works, sees also their worth.[1268]

[1251] Beda, N. de Lyra. Cf. also C. a Lap., Tirin.

[1252] Psalm 41:4.

[1253] 2 Kings 9:31 sqq.

[1254] Against Herder, etc.

[1255] 2 Kings 10:7. Züll., Ebrard.

[1256] Areth., Vitr., Ew., De Wette, etc.

[1257] Cf. Isaiah 57:3.

[1258] Areth., N. de Lyra, Calov., Vitr., Eichh., De Wette, Stern, Hengstenb., Ebrard, Ew. ii.

[1259] Aretius, Grot., Beng., Ew., Klief.

[1260] Grot., Vitr., Wetst., Bengel, Ewald, etc. Cf. Revelation 6:8.

[1261] Cf. Revelation 2:16.

[1262] Cf. Joel 3:17; Isaiah 37:20.

[1263] Hengstenb.

[1264] Grot.

[1265] Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 17:10.

[1266] Revelation 2:18.

[1267] Grotius, De Wette.

[1268] Cf. De Wette.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Revelation 2:22. κλίνην (bed, not a couch of revelry) aegritudinis non amoris; disease or sickness (cf. for the phrase, 1Ma 1:5) the punishment of error, especially of error accompanied by licentiousness. The inscriptions from Asia Minor abound with instances of the popular belief that impurity, moral and even physical, was punished by disease or disaster to oneself, one’s property, one’s children. Sickness might even go the length of death (1 Corinthians 11:29-30). The prophet, however, seems to avoid calling Jesus or God σωτὴρ or σώζων, a term appropriated by the popular religions of Phrygia and lavished on many deities as healers and helpers (C. B. P. i. 262 f.).—μοιχ., men and women who imitate her licentiousness. θλ., physical distress, illness.—μετανοήσουσιν, the fut. indic., expresses rather more probability than subj. with ἐὰν μή (cf. Blass, § 65, 5). For tense of βάλλω see Zechariah 8:7, LXX, etc.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. I will cast] lit. ‘I am casting’ i.e. am about to cast. Cf. ‘I ascend’, John 20:17.

a bed] Perhaps of sickness, as “death” in the next v. is perhaps to be taken of pestilence: cf. Revelation 6:8.

with her] Possibly the sense is “I will cast them together with her into …,” but the sense “the partners of her adulteries” is at least equally natural. It seems probably intended, that she and they are to be separated in punishment: Francesca’s “Questi che mai da me non fia diviso” is rather a poetical sentiment than a moral one. But if Jezebel be understood to mean a sect rather than an individual woman, it will be possible to distinguish her “adulteries” as metaphorical from the literal “fornication” which she encouraged: if so, her paramours are the false teachers, her children their disciples.

Bengel's Gnomen

Revelation 2:22. Βαλῶ[42]) Thus Hunt. Æth. Arab. Lat. and many others, who read I will send, and Tertullian, who has I will give. The others read βάλλω. For the copyists frequently put ΛΛ for Λ in the use of this verb; and ἸΔΟῪ is usually construed with a present, though sometimes also with a future: Luke 1:20; Luke 1:31; Luke 1:48. And the future agrees with this passage, because the condition, unless they shall repent, gives an interval of time: and ἀποκτενῶ accords with ΒΑΛῶ: and lastly, in all these denunciations, the sense of the future prevails: ch. Revelation 2:5, ΚΙΝΉΣΩ; Revelation 2:16, ΠΟΛΕΜΉΣΩ; Revelation 2:24, ΒΑΛῶ, where also many read ΒΆΛΛΩ; ch. Revelation 3:4, ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΗΣΟΥΣΙ; Revelation 2:9, ΠΟΙΉΣΩ, with ἸΔΟΎ; Revelation 2:20, ΕἸΣΕΛΕΎΣΟΜΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ.

[42] So B (βάλω) and Memph. But Vulg. and most authorities, βάλλω.—E.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Behold! The exclamation "arrests attention, and prepares the way for something unexpected and terrible." It is one of the many differences between the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse, that in the former ἴδε is the dominant form, while in the latter ἰδού is the invariable form (καὶ ἴδε in Revelation 6:l, 5, 7 is a spurious addition); ἰδού is very rare in the Gospel; ἴδε is found nowhere in the Apocalypse. In the Epistles neither form occurs. I do cast her into a bed. Βάλλω, not βαλῶ, is the true reading; the future has been substituted for the present to match the futures in ver. 23. Forbearance having failed, God tries severity; and, as so often in his dealings with man, the instrument of wrong doing is made the instrument of punishment. The bed of sin becomes a bed of suffering. Compare "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;" and "I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord" (1 Kings 21:19; 2 Kings 9:26). Βάλλω is one of many words which has become weakened in meaning in late Greek: it often means no more than "place" or "put" (John 5:7; John 12:6; John 13:2; John 18:11; John 20:25). In the passive it is rather common of being laid up in sickness (Matthew 8:6, 14; Matthew 9:2; Mark 7:30). But perhaps we should rather compare such expressions as "cast into prison, into the sea, into the fire, into Gehenna" (Matthew 18:30; Matthew 21:21; Matthew 18:8, 9). It may be doubted whether there is any significance in the fact that her sin is spoken of as πορνείνα (ver. 21), whereas those who sin with her are said μοιχεύειν. Idolatry is spoken of both as whoredom and as adultery. In the one case it is a contrast to the marriage tie between God and his faithful worshippers; in the other it is a violation of it. Jezebel anticipates the harlot of Revelation 17, as Balaam anticipates the false prophet of Revelation 13. The remarkable construction, "repent out of" (μετανοῆσαι ἐκ), is peculiar to this book (vers. 21, 22; 9:20, 21; 16:11; but in Acts 8:22 we have μετανόησον ἀπό, and in Hebrews 6:1 we have μετανοία ἀπό (compare the converse, μετανοία εἰς, Acts 20:21). "Her works" is to be preferred to "their works." Αὐτῆς might easily be changed to αὐτῶν, either accidentally, owing to the preceding ἔργων, or deliberately, because it seems strange to talk of repenting from the works of another person. But the point is that those who have become partakers in her sins have abandoned their own works for hers; and it is therefore from her works that they are bidden to repent (compare "my works" in ver. 26). Revelation 2:22

Vincent's Word Studies

Into a bed

Of anguish. The scene of the sin is also the scene of the punishment.

Commit adultery (μοιχεύοντας)

A wider term than πορνεῦσαι to commit fornication. Compare the metaphorical meaning expressing the rebellion and idolatry of Israel (Jeremiah 3:8; Jeremiah 5:7; Ezekiel 16:32).

With her (μετ' αὐτῆς)

Not with her as the conjux adulteri, but who share with her in her adulteries.

Of their deeds (ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν)

Read αὐτῆς her (deeds). Repent out of (ἐκ) as in Revelation 2:21.