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12 [a]Then I watched while he broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth[b] and the whole moon became like blood.(A) 13 The stars in the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs[c] shaken loose from the tree in a strong wind. 14 Then the sky was divided[d] like a torn scroll curling up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.(B) 15 The kings of the earth, the nobles,[e] the military officers, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in caves and among mountain crags. 16 They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,(C) 17 because the great day of their[f] wrath has come and who can withstand it?”

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Footnotes

  1. 6:12–14 Symbolic rather than literal description of the cosmic upheavals attending the day of the Lord when the martyrs’ prayer for vindication (Rev 6:10) would be answered; cf. Am 8:8–9; Is 34:4; 50:3; Jl 2:10; 3:3–4; Mt 24:4–36; Mk 13:5–37; Lk 21:8–36.
  2. 6:12 Dark sackcloth: for mourning, sackcloth was made from the skin of a black goat.
  3. 6:13 Unripe figs: literally, “summer (or winter) fruit.”
  4. 6:14 Was divided: literally, “was split,” like a broken papyrus roll torn in two, each half then curling up to form a roll on either side.
  5. 6:15 Nobles: literally, “courtiers,” “grandees.” Military officers: literally, “commanders of 1,000 men,” used in Josephus and other Greek authors as the equivalent of the Roman tribunus militum. The listing of various ranks of society represents the universality of terror at the impending doom.
  6. 6:17 Their: this reading is attested in the best manuscripts, but the vast majority read “his” in reference to the wrath of the Lamb in the preceding verse.

12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake.(A) The sun turned black(B) like sackcloth(C) made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth,(D) as figs drop from a fig tree(E) when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up,(F) and every mountain and island was removed from its place.(G)

15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free,(H) hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.(I) 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us(J) and hide us[a] from the face of him who sits on the throne(K) and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day(L) of their[b] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”(M)

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Footnotes

  1. Revelation 6:16 See Hosea 10:8.
  2. Revelation 6:17 Some manuscripts his