Rev 20:13-14 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it . All that had been buried in the depths of oceans. This number in the aggregate will be great. If we include all who were swept off by the flood, and all who have perished by shipwreck, and all who have been killed in naval battles and buried in the sea, and all who have been swept away by inundations of the ocean, and all who have peacefully died at sea, as sailors, or in the pursuits of commerce or benevolence, the number in the aggregate will be immense--a number so vast that it was proper to notice them particularly in the account of the general resurrection and the last judgment. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them . That is, all the dead came, from all regions where they were scattered--on the land and in the ocean--in this world and in the invisible world. "Death and hell" are here personified, and are represented as having dominion over the dead, and as now delivering up, or surrendering those who were held under them. On the meaning of the words here used, ; . Compare ; ; ; . This whole representation is entirely inconsistent with the supposition that a large part of the dead had been already raised up at the beginning of the millennial period, and had been permitted, in their glorified bodies, to reign with Christ. And they were judged , etc. All these were judged--the righteous and the wicked; those buried at sea, and those buried on the land; the small and the great; the dead, in whatever world they may have been. (1) "hell" "the grave"

Revelation of John 20:13-14

Verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. All that had been buried in the depths of oceans. This number in the aggregate will be great. If we include all who were swept off by the flood, and all who have perished by shipwreck, and all who have been killed in naval battles and buried in the sea, and all who have been swept away by inundations of the ocean, and all who have peacefully died at sea, as sailors, or in the pursuits of commerce or benevolence, the number in the aggregate will be immense--a number so vast that it was proper to notice them particularly in the account of the general resurrection and the last judgment.

And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. That is, all the dead came, from all regions where they were scattered--on the land and in the ocean--in this world and in the invisible world. "Death and hell" are here personified, and are represented as having dominion over the dead, and as now delivering up, or surrendering those who were held under them. On the meaning of the words here used, Rev 1:18; Rev 6:8. Compare Mt 10:23; Job 10:21; Job 10:22; Isa 14:9. This whole representation is entirely inconsistent with the supposition that a large part of the dead had been already raised up at the beginning of the millennial period, and had been permitted, in their glorified bodies, to reign with Christ.

And they were judged, etc. All these were judged--the righteous and the wicked; those buried at sea, and those buried on the land; the small and the great; the dead, in whatever world they may have been.

(1) "hell" "the grave" Verse 14. And death and hell were east into the lake of fire. Death and Hades (hell) are here personified, as they are in the previous verse. The declaration is equivalent to the statement in 1Cor 15:26, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1Cor 15:26. The idea is, that death, considered as the separation of soul and body, with all the attendant woes, will exist no more. The righteous will live for ever, and the wicked will linger on in a state never to be terminated by death. The reign of Death and Hades, as such, would come to an end, and a new order of things would commence where this would be unknown. There might be that which would be properly called death, but it would not be death in this form; the soul would live for ever, but it would not be in that condition represented by the word αδης--hades. There would be death still, but a "second death differs from the first, in the fact that it is not a separation of the soul and body, but a state of continual agony like that which the first death inflicts--like that in intensity, but not in kind."--Professor Stuart.

This is the second death. That is, this whole process here described --the condemnation, and the final death and ruin of those whose names are "not found written in the book of life"--properly constitutes the second death. This proves that when it is said that "death and hell were cast into a lake of fire," it cannot be meant that all punishment will cease for ever, and that all will be saved, for the writer goes on to describe what he calls "the second death" as still existing. See Rev 20:15. John describes this as the second death, not because it in all respects resembles the first death, but because it has so many points of resemblance that it may be properly called death. Death, in any form, is the penalty of law; it is attended with pain; it cuts off from hope, from friends, from enjoyment; it subjects him who dies to a much-dreaded condition, and in all these respects it was proper to call the final condition of the wicked death--though it would still be true that the soul would live. There is no evidence that John meant to affirm that the second death would imply an extinction of existence. Death never does that; the word does not naturally and properly convey that idea.

(a) "death and hell" Hoss 13:14, 1Cor 15:26,54 (b) "lake of fire" Mt 25:41