Apocalipsis 14

VBL · Chapter 14/22

1Luego miré, y vi al Cordero en pie sobre el Monte de Sión. Y con él había 144:000 que tenían en sus frentes su nombre, y el nombre de su Padre.

2Y escuché una voz que procedía del cielo y que sonaba como torrentes de agua y fuertes truenos, y se oían tocar muchas arpas.

3Y cantaban un cántico nuevo frente al trono, así como de las cuatro criaturas vivientes y los ancianos. Y nadie más conocía el cántico, excepto los 144:000, los que habían sido redimidos de la tierra.

4Ellos no se habían contaminado al pecar con mujeres. Eran espiritualmente vírgenes. Son los que siguen al Cordero dondequiera que él va. Fueron redimidos de la humanidad como primicias para Dios y el Cordero.

5Ellos no dicen mentiras y en ellos no hay defecto.

6Entonces vi a otro ángel que volaba por en medio del cielo. Tenía el evangelio eterno para que se anunciara a los habitantes de la tierra, a cada nación, tribu, lengua y pueblo.

7Y clamaba a gran voz, diciendo: “La reverencia y la gloria sean dadas a Dios, pues ha llegado la hora de su juicio. Adoren a Aquél que hizo el cielo, la tierra, el mar, y las fuentes de agua”.

8Y le siguió un segundo ángel, gritando: “¡Babilonia, la grande, ha colapsado y ha quedado en ruinas! Ella hizo beber a todas las naciones del vino de su inmoralidad sexual que Dios aborrece con ira”.

9Y un tercer ángel le siguió, diciendo a gran voz: “Si alguno adora a la bestia y a su imagen, y recibe marca sobre su frente o su mano,

10beberá también del vino del aborrecimiento de Dios que se derrama puro en la copa de su ira, y sufrirán angustia en fuego y azufre ardiente ante los ángeles santos y el Cordero.

11Y el humo de su angustia asciende por siempre y para siempre. Los que adoran a la bestia y reciben la marca de su nombre no tienen descanso ni de día ni de noche”.

12Esto quiere decir que los creyentes deben perseverar con paciencia, guardando los mandamientos de Dios y confiando en Jesús.

13Entonces oí una voz que procedía del cielo, que me decía: “¡Escribe esto! Benditos son los que mueren en el Señor a partir de ahora. Sí, dice el Espíritu, porque ahora ellos pueden descansar de sus aflicciones. Y lo que han logrado hablará por ellos”.

14Entonces miré y vi una nube blanca. Y sobre la nube estaba sentado uno que parecía como el Hijo de hombre, usando una corona de oro y sostenía en su mano una hoz afilada.

15Y otro ángel salió del Templo y gritaba a gran voz al que estaba sentado en la nube: “Toma tu hoz y empieza a segar, porque es tiempo de la cosecha, y la cosecha de la tierra está madura”.

16Y el que estaba sentado sobre la nube pasó la hoz sobre la tierra, y recogió la cosecha de la tierra.

17Y otro ángel salió del Templo en el cielo. También tenía una hoz afilada.

18A él le siguió un ángel que venía desde el altar que servía para el fuego, y clamó a gran voz al ángel que tenía la hoz afilada: “Toma tu hoz y recoge los racimos de uvas de la viña de la tierra, porque sus uvas están maduras”.

19Y el ángel pasó la hoz por la tierra y recogió las uvas de la viña, y las arrojó en el enorme lagar del juicio de Dios.

20Y fueron pisoteadas en el lagar, afuera de la ciudad. Y del lagar brotaba sangre que llegaba hasta los frenos de un caballo, y hasta una distancia de 1.600 estadios.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The Lamb appears on Mount Zion with the 144,000 who are sealed, singing a new song, while three angels successively proclaim the eternal gospel, the fall of Babylon, and a warning against worshiping the beast. The chapter ends with two symbolic harvests, one of grain and one of grapes, representing final judgment.

Explanation

This chapter functions as a direct counterpoint to chapter 13: while the beast demands worship through a mark and force, the Lamb voluntarily gathers his faithful followers, marked with God's name, showing two opposing and mutually exclusive loyalties. The three angels announcing successive messages — the eternal gospel for every nation, the fall of 'Babylon' (a symbol of corrupt and oppressive world systems), and the warning about the consequences of worshiping the beast — summarize the entire moral message of the book in miniature. The image of the grape harvest trampled 'in the great winepress of the wrath of God,' with blood rising to the horses' bridles, uses extreme apocalyptic hyperbole to convey the absolute seriousness of the final judgment against persistent injustice. Today's application is that, faced with social pressure to conform to evil, the faithful are called to persevere in loyalty to God, whatever the cost.

Fun facts

  • The term 'Babylon' used here and in later chapters (14:8) does not refer to the historic city, which had already ceased to exist as a power centuries earlier, but was a common code name among first-century Jews and Christians for Rome, the oppressive empire of the time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipsis 14:1In direct contrast with the mark of the beast from the previous chapter, the Lamb appears with the 144,000 (already introduced in chapter 7) marked on the forehead with His name and the Father's, not with the number of the beast.
  2. Apocalipsis 14:2The voice from heaven, compared to many waters and to a great thunder, but also described as the sound of harpers, mixes overwhelming force with musical beauty in the same scene.
  3. Apocalipsis 14:3Only those who had lived through the same experience as the hundred and forty-four thousand could understand that song, a way of describing a testimony so specific that it cannot simply be repeated without having lived it.
  4. Apocalipsis 14:4This passage is usually read symbolically, as purity and faithfulness, avoiding a kind of spiritual unfaithfulness with idols, rather than as a literal requirement about marital status. Christian traditions disagree on how literally to take this image.
  5. Apocalipsis 14:5This describes the character of this group with two qualities: complete sincerity (“in their mouth was found no guile”) and blameless conduct before God.
  6. Apocalipsis 14:6An angel appears announcing an “everlasting gospel” to every nation, tongue, and people - a universal message, unlike the geographic limits of the earlier plagues.
  7. Apocalipsis 14:7The content of this message is direct: fear God, give Him glory, because the hour of judgment has come; the description of God as creator of heaven, earth, sea, and springs of water echoes the language used in the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20.
  8. Apocalipsis 14:8This is the first mention of ‘Babylon’ as a nickname, explained in more detail later in chapters 17 and 18, for a great, corrupt city that seduces the nations. The earliest Jewish readers already associated this name with the empire that had destroyed the temple in Jerusalem centuries before.
  9. Apocalipsis 14:9A third angel follows with an even more serious warning, directed specifically at those who worship the beast and receive its mark.
  10. Apocalipsis 14:10The pairing of fire and brimstone echoes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, becoming the Bible's standard image for describing divine judgment.
  11. Apocalipsis 14:11This describes the consequence of that act as a torment without end and without rest, a direct contrast with the rest promised to the faithful a few verses later.
  12. Apocalipsis 14:12This repeats almost the same expression used in chapter 13 about the patience of the saints, now linking that perseverance to obedience to God's commandments and to faith in Jesus.
  13. Apocalipsis 14:13A voice from heaven declares blessed those who die “in the Lord” from that moment on, promising rest from the struggles described in the previous chapters.
  14. Apocalipsis 14:14The title Son of man, used here with authority, comes from the vision in Daniel 7. The sickle uses the image of the harvest, the natural marker of the end of an agricultural cycle, to describe a moment of reckoning.
  15. Apocalipsis 14:15An angel coming out of the heavenly temple orders the harvest to begin, using the agricultural image of a ripe crop to describe the right moment for judgment.
  16. Apocalipsis 14:16The command from the previous verse is carried out at once: the sickle is thrust in and the earth is reaped.
  17. Apocalipsis 14:17This introduces another angel, also with a sharp sickle, coming out of the same heavenly temple, setting up the second harvest scene that follows.
  18. Apocalipsis 14:18An angel connected to the fire of the altar (perhaps the same altar mentioned in earlier chapters) calls for the harvest of grapes, an image separate from the grain harvest, usually read as a specific scene of judgment against those who oppose God.
  19. Apocalipsis 14:19The winepress was where grapes were trodden to become wine, and here it becomes a violent image of judgment. The exaggerated scale - blood rising high and stretching a thousand and six hundred furlongs - is typical of apocalyptic literature, which uses extreme numbers for emphasis, not a literal geographic measurement.
  20. Apocalipsis 14:20The exaggerated scale - blood rising up to the horses' bridles over a huge distance - is typical of apocalyptic language, which uses extreme numbers to convey the seriousness of a judgment, not a literal geographic measurement.

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