Revelation 22:9

9 1but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant[a] with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those 2who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

Revelation 22:9 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 22:9

Then saith he unto me
The angel at whose feet John fell down to worship: see thou do it not;
this he said in great haste, and with much vehemence, to hinder him from doing it, as his short way of speaking shows: for I am thy fellow servant:
of God, and of Christ, and am no more the object of worship than thyself; and both of us are, and ought to be, the worshippers of God, whose servants we are: and of thy brethren the prophets;
the apostles and ministers of the word; for prophesying and preaching are the same thing; these were the brethren of John in a spiritual sense, and by reason of their function: and of them which keep the sayings of this book;
see ( Revelation 22:7 ) and this is said to encourage the observation of them, and is the character of private Christians, and shows the great condescension of the angel to put himself, not only upon a level with John, and the ministers of the word, but with common believers: worship God;
and him only, and that in a spiritual manner, with reverence and godly fear, in faith, and according to his revealed will; (See Gill on Revelation 19:10).

Revelation 22:9 In-Context

7 "And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
9 but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy."

Cross References 2

  • 1. [See ver. 8 above]
  • 2. [See ver. 6 above]

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Greek fellow bondservant
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.