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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 11:15, he will reign forever, and the nations were angry
The seventh trumpet's song borrows from the Song of Moses at the sea, where the nations heard and were angry, in the Greek, and the Lord will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 11:15; Revelation 11:18, in every translation this tool compares.
A victory parade can play the same march the city played after its first great win. After the crossing of the sea, Moses sang that the nations heard and shook, and that the Lord will reign forever. The trumpets have followed the plagues on Egypt. The seventh ends where the Exodus story ended, with the song at the sea. The nations were angry, and the Lord reigns for good.
The nations were angry: Exodus 15:14 in Greek reads ekousan ethne kai orgisthesan, and John has ta ethne orgisthesan. An everlasting reign: Exodus 15:18 has the Lord reigning forever and ever (basileuon ton aiona kai ep aiona), and John has basileusei eis tous aionas ton aionon.
The Hebrew of Exodus 15:14 says the peoples heard and trembled (yirgazun). The Greek translation made it they were angry, and John's word matches that Greek, a point drawn here. In Exodus the nations fear Israel's God; in John they rage against him. John's reign phrase is his own wording of the Exodus idea.
Beale says the seventh trumpet may be built around Exodus 15:13-18: God brings his people to his sanctuary despite the raging nations, and the Lord reigns forever. Since the first six trumpets copied the plagues on Egypt, the seventh fitly ends with the song at the sea. Revelation 15:3 later names the Song of Moses outright.
Not Psalm 2 alone. The angry nations fit Exodus 15:14 in Greek more closely than Psalm 2:1.
Beale says the acknowledgment of God's rule at the Red Sea rings in the background of 11:15 (Exodus 15:18, with Psalms 10:16; 145:13; 146:10 and Micah 4:7 as the other uses of the phrase). He says the seventh trumpet may be built around Exodus 15:13-18: the nations heard and were angry (15:14 in the Septuagint, as in Revelation 11:18), God brought his people into his sanctuary (15:17), and the Lord reigns forever (15:18), a verbatim parallel to 11:15. He notes that legontes also introduces the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:1, and adds Psalm 99:1, where the Lord reigns and the peoples rage. The vault's Septuagint of Exodus 15:14 reads ekousan ethne kai orgisthesan, and 15:18 kyrios basileuon ton aiona kai ep aiona kai eti. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says the nations were angry recalls Exodus 15:14 and Psalm 2:1, and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Exodus 15:18 for God's reign. The grade is drawn here: the Greek wording is close and Beale gives a motive, but he hedges with may.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:15 and 11:19
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:17
- Septuagint, Exodus 15:14 and 15:18, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Exodus 15:14, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:15 and 11:18
