For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?”
Parallel translations
- WEB for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
- KJV For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
- BSB For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
- NKJV For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
- NASB for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
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
They confess that the great day of God's wrath has come and ask who can stand. The verse poses the book's urgent question about who will survive judgment.
Overview
The 'great day of wrath' is the long-foretold day of the Lord, now arriving. The despairing question 'who is able to stand?' exposes humanity's helplessness before God's holiness. Chapter 7 answers it: only those sealed and redeemed by the Lamb can stand, which directs the reader to the gospel for hope.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Mal 3:2“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;
- Joel 2:11Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
- Ps 76:7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Joel 2:31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
- Jer 30:7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
- Rev 16:14for they are spirits of demons, performing signs; which go out to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God, the Almighty.
- Zeph 1:14–18The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
- Isa 13:6–22Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Rom 2:5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
- Ps 130:3–4If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
- Luke 21:36Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
- Rev 11:18The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
- Jude 1:6Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 6:17 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.