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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 15:3, just and true are your ways
Moses' second song calls God's works true and his ways just; the singers say it of God's ways, and the altar says it of his judgments.
Revelation 15:3; Revelation 16:5-7, in every translation this tool compares.
A family motto stitched on a sampler can turn up again in a wedding toast years later. Moses' second song, in Deuteronomy 32, praises God: his works are true, his ways are justice, and he is just and holy. The singers in Revelation say nearly the same about God's ways. Later, as the bowls fall, an angel calls God just and holy, and the altar calls his judgments true and just. Each time the point is that God judges fairly.
The pair true and just, with holy beside it. In the Greek of Deuteronomy 32:4 his works are true (alethina) and his ways are judgment. The Lord is just (dikaios) and holy (hosios). Revelation 15:3 has just and true your ways; 16:5 calls God just and the holy one; 16:7 has true and just your judgments.
Deuteronomy speaks about God; Revelation speaks to him. In 15:3 John reverses the order of true and just, and in 16:7 he puts judgments where Moses had ways. In 16:5 holy one takes the place of who is to come, the third part of the name used for God in 1:4. Beale says the change shows that God has begun to judge.
Deuteronomy 32 ends with God avenging the blood of his servants. John calls on that song as the bowls fall on those who shed the blood of the saints (16:6). The angel of the waters and the altar agree: what God does is right. The saints' cry from under the altar (6:10) is being answered.
Not a celebration of cruelty. Both Deuteronomy and Revelation tie God's judgment to his fairness. Beale calls the acts moral expressions of God's just character.
Beale says the noun clause in 15:3 echoes Deuteronomy 32:4 in the Greek translation, and that the same verse lies behind the identical words in 16:7. He notes that Deuteronomy 32 is introduced as a song in 31:30 and that the Talmud (b. Taanith 11a) applies it to judgment and reward in the world to come. The Greek of Deuteronomy 32:4 has true, judgment, just and holy in one verse; Beale reads holy (hosios) in 16:5 as a near synonym for just, as in that verse and Psalm 145:17. He adds that Daniel 3:27 in the Greek also seems to recall Deuteronomy 32:4, and that Psalm 119:75 and 119:137-138 join the same words. The ESV Study Bible cites the later song of Moses, especially Deuteronomy 32:4, and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Deuteronomy 32:4 at 15:3-4 and 16:5. The grade is drawn here: the pair of words is common, but only this verse joins it to a song of Moses.
The CSB Study Bible's cross-references at 16:7 point instead to Psalm 19:9, where the Lord's judgments are true and righteous. Beale also cites Psalm 119. Keener reads the angel's praise against the psalms in which the oppressed thank God for vindicating them. The sources agree on the meaning; they differ on which text John had in mind.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 15:3b, 16:5 and 16:7
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 15:3-4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 15:3-4 and 16:5
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 16:7
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 16:5
- Septuagint, Deuteronomy 32:4, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 15:3, 16:5 and 16:7
