Revelation Jewish New Testament, JNT, CJNT, David H. Stern

chapter 10
1. Next I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was dressed in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, his legs like columns of fire;
Legs (as in most versions; KJV, "feet"). This is a good proof that the Jewish author, Yochanan, thought in Hebrew. In Greek, "podes" means "feet," and "skele" means "legs." But Hebrew has only one word, "raglayim" which can mean either. The text here has "podes," but feet cannot be like columns (or "pillars"), only legs can. Either the author, thinking in Hebrew but writing in Greek, believed "podes" was the appropriate Greek rendering of "raglayim"; or the author thought and wrote in Hebrew, but someone else, equally unacquainted with Greek nuances, translated "raglayim" as "podes" instead of "skeli." (I know from living in Israel that this specific confusion does occur, even my own children, bilingual in Hebrew and English, used to call feet "legs.") 

2. and he had a little scroll lying open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,
His right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, symbolizing the fact that this angel's mission involves the whole world. 

3. and shouted in a voice as loud as the roar of a lion; and when he shouted, seven thunderclaps sounded with voices that spoke.
Thunderclaps sounded with voices. Compare 1:15,4:5; and see Ac 2:4b-13&N. 

4. When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say,
“Seal up the things the seven thunders said,
do not write them down!”
The seven thunders are aspects of divine wrath which God orders concealed and not revealed. Sha'ul mentioned a similar experience at 2C 12:3-4. Compare Daniel 12:9. 

5. Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted his right hand toward heaven
6. and swore by the One who lives forever and ever (Deuteronomy 32:40; Daniel 12:7) who created heaven and what is in it, earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it (Nehemiah 9:6; see also Exodus 20:11; Psalm 146:6): “There will be no more delay;
No more delay. Compare Ro 9:28, 2 Ke 3:9. 

7. on the contrary, in the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar, the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion, the Good News as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets.”
The hidden plan ("mystery"; see Ro 11:25N) of God is the Good News, the Gospel. It includes both judgment, as described in the book of Revelation, and the overall outworking of history, including the salvation of the Jewish people and of others who come to faith, as outlined at Ro 11:25-36,16:25; Ep 1:9-10; 3:3-11; and Co 1:26-27; compare Mt 13:11. God proclaimed it to his servants the prophets (the phrase echoes Daniel 9:6), even though, since they lived centuries earlier, they did not fully understand it (Daniel 12:8ff.); compare Ga 3:8. 

8. Next the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll lying open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land!”
9. So I went over to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”
10. I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it; and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; but after I had swallowed it, my stomach turned bitter.
11. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”
On eating the scroll, compare Jeremiah 15:16, Ezekiel 2:8-3:3; also Psalms 19:11(10), 119:103 on its words' being sweet as honey. On the bitterness, see Ezekiel 3:4-11; also compare Yeshua weeping over Jerusalem (Mt 23:37-38, Lk 19:41) — there is no joy in preaching the wrath of God. 

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