Revelation 1:7

This verse, as indeed may be said of the whole Book, is founded chiefly on our Lord's own prophecy recorded in St Matthew 24, and secondly on the Old Testament prophecies which He there refers to and sums up.

with clouds "With theclouds," "he clouds of heaven" of Daniel 7:13.

and they also which pierced him Zechariah 12:10; in his Gospel, John 19:37, St John translates that passage correctly, and here refers to the same translation: that of the LXX. is wrong and almost meaningless. But while the wordshere are taken from Zechariah, the thoughtis rather that of Matthew 26:64: "they which pierced Him" are thought of, not as looking to Him by faith, and mourning for Him in penitence, but as seeing Him Whom they had not believed in, and mourning in despair.

all kindreds of the earth Better, all the tribes the reference is still to Zech. l. c., through the medium of Matthew 24:30. Thus we see that the fact that the profitable and the unprofitable "mourning" (or "wailing" the Greek word is the same in St Matthew as here) are foretold in the same terms, in solemnly suggestive contrast with each other, is due not to the Apostle but to his Master: it is He that tells us that all tribes of the earth mustmourn, either now for the woe our sins caused Him, or then for the woe they will cause us.

because of him Literally, "at him;" at sight of Him. R. V. "over Him," which can hardly be meant here.

Even so, Amen Or, Yea, Amen the two words, Greek and Hebrew, being similarly coupled in 2 Corinthians 1:20. The second, like the first, is an emphatic word of confirmationso used e.g. repeatedly by our Lord Himself, St Matthew 5:18, &c., where it is translated "verily." The popular tradition that "Amen" means "So be it" is only partially true: even in its liturgical use, we append it to creeds as well as prayers. It comes from the same Hebrew root as the words for "faith" and "truth;" the primary meaning being apparently "solidity." See on Revelation 3:14.