The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places.
Parallel translations
- WEB The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
- KJV And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
- BSB The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.
- NKJV Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
- NASB The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sky rolls up like a scroll and mountains and islands are moved. The whole structure of creation is shaken at the day of God's wrath.
Overview
Drawing on Isaiah 34:4, the receding sky and displaced mountains picture the dissolving of the present order before the Judge. Nothing in heaven or on earth remains stable in that day. The imagery underscores the awesome finality of God's reckoning with the world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 34:4All 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.
- Rev 16:20Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
- 2 Pet 3:10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
- Heb 1:11–13They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does.
- Ps 102:26They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.
- Jer 4:23–26I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
- Isa 54:10For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Yahweh who has mercy on you.
- Rev 20:11I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Nah 1:5The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Ezek 38:20so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
- Hab 3:6He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
- Rev 21:1I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
- Isa 2:14–17For all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,
- Jer 51:25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain.
- Hab 3:10The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
- Jer 3:23Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Revelation ends the story with the slain-yet-standing Lamb who is worthy, the Lion of Judah, the Alpha and Omega, the returning King who makes all things new and dwells with his people forever.
How Revelation 6:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.