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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 7:17, God will wipe away every tear
The promise that God will wipe every tear comes from Isaiah 25:8, and John's verb is closer to the Hebrew than to the Greek translation.
Revelation 7:17, in every translation this tool compares.
A parent drying a child's face after a bad dream is a picture everyone understands. Isaiah 25 describes a feast for all peoples on God's mountain. God swallows up death and wipes the tears from every face. John ends the vision of the crowd with the same promise. God himself will dry every tear they cry.
God removing every tear (pan dakryon). Both texts make God the one who does it and both say every tear.
The Greek translation of Isaiah 25:8 says the Lord took away (aphelen) every tear. The Hebrew says he will wipe (machah). John has will wipe away (exaleipsei), which matches the Hebrew sense, a point drawn here. Isaiah says from every face; John says from their eyes. John leaves out the reason Isaiah gives, death swallowed up, until 21:4.
In Isaiah the end of tears comes at the feast where death is defeated. Beale says John assumes that reason here and states it in 21:4. Those who suffered through the tribulation are comforted by God's own hand.
Not a promise for this life only. Beale and the ESV Study Bible tie the promise to the new Jerusalem of 21:4.
Beale calls this an allusion to the restoration promise of Isaiah 25:8, appended to the Isaiah 49:10 wording. In Isaiah the end of mourning comes because God will swallow up death, which John states in 21:4. In the vault's Septuagint, Isaiah 25:8 reads kai palin aphelen kyrios ho theos pan dakryon apo pantos prosopou. The Hebrew reads umachah adonai YHWH dim'ah me'al kol panim, and the Lord God will wipe tears from all faces. Revelation 7:17 has exaleipsei ho theos pan dakryon ek ton ophthalmon auton. The match of wipe to the Hebrew is drawn here; the sources do not discuss it. Keener says the verse alludes to Isaiah 25:8; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible's cross-references and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible all cite it, and Wright links it to 21:4. The grade is drawn here: the words and the giver are the same.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 7:16-17
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 7:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 7:16-17
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 7:15-17
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 7:17
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 7:17
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 7:9-17
- Septuagint, Isaiah 25:8, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Isaiah 25:8, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 7:17
