Revelation 9:6

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

And, in those days, shall men seek death, and in nowise shall find it, and shall covet to die, and death fleeth from them.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will hide from them.

Revised Standard Version
And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And in those dayes shall men seke deeth and shall not fynde it and shall desyre to dye and deeth shall flye fro the.

Hebrew Names Version
In those days men will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

New American Standard Bible
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!

New Century Version
During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will run away from them.

Update Bible Version
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no way find it; and they shall desire to die, and death flees from them.

Webster's Bible Translation
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

World English Bible
In those days men will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And in those days the men shall seek death, but not find it; and shall desire to die, but death will flee from them.

Weymouth's New Testament
And at that time people will seek death, but will by no possibility find it, and will long to die, but death evades them.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And in tho daies men schulen seke deth, and thei schulen not fynde it; and thei schulen desire to die, and deth schal fle fro hem.

English Revised Version
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.

Berean Standard Bible
In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.

Contemporary English Version
In those days people will want to die, but they will not be able to. They will hope for death, but it will escape from them.

Amplified Bible
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die [to escape the pain], but [will discover that] death evades them.

American Standard Version
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them.

Bible in Basic English
And in those days men will be hoping for death, and it will not come to them; and they will have a great desire for death, and death will go in flight from them.

Complete Jewish Bible
In those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

Darby Translation
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall in no way find it; and shall desire to die, and death flees from them.

International Standard Version
In those days people will look for death and never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.Job 1:3:21; Isaiah 2:19; Jeremiah 8:3; Revelation 6:16;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
And in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find; and shall desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Murdock Translation
And in those days, men will desire death, and will not find it; and they will long to die, and death will fly from them.

King James Version (1611)
And in those daies shal men seeke death, and shall not finde it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

New Living Translation
In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!

New Life Bible
Men will look for ways to die during those days, but they will not find any way. They will want to die, but death will be kept from them.

New Revised Standard
And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

English Standard Version
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore in those dayes shall men seeke death, and shall not finde it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flie from them.

George Lamsa Translation
So in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And in those days, men shall seek death and shall not find it. And they shall desire to die: and death shall fly from them.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And in those dayes shall men seke death, and shall not fynde it, and shall desire to dye, and death shall flee from them.

Good News Translation
During those five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

Christian Standard Bible®
In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

King James Version
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Lexham English Bible
And in those days people will seek death and will never find it, and they will long to die, and death will flee from them.

Literal Translation
And in those days men will seek death, and they will not find it. And they will long to die, yet death will flee from them.

Young's Literal Translation
and in those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee from them.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And in those dayes shal me seke deeth, and shal not fynde it: and shal desyre to dye, and death shal flye from them.

Mace New Testament (1729)
in those days shall men seek for death, but shall not find it; they will desire to die, and death will shun them.

New English Translation
In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

New King James Version
In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Simplified Cowboy Version
During those five months, people will look for death to ease the pain, but be unable to find it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.

Contextual Overview

¹ And, the fifth messenger, sounded; and I saw a star, out of heaven, fallen unto the earth, and there was given unto him the key of the shaft of the abyss. ² And he opened the shaft of the abyss; and there came up a smoke out of the shaft, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the shaft. ³ And, out of the smoke, came forth, locusts, upon the earth; and there was given unto them licence, as the scorpions of the earth have licence. ⁴ And it was bidden them that they should not injure the herbage of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, - but only the men who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads. ⁵ And it was given unto them, that they should not slay them, but that they should be tormented five months; and, the torture of them, was as of a scorpion's torture, whensoever it smiteth a man. ⁶ And, in those days, shall men seek death, and in nowise shall find it, and shall covet to die, and death fleeth from them. ⁷ And, the likenesses of the locusts, were like unto horses prepared for battle; and, upon their heads, as it were crowns, like unto gold, and, their faces, were as the faces of men, ⁸ and, they had hair, as the hair of women, and, their teeth, were, as of lions, ⁹ and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and, the sound of their wings, was as the sound of chariots of many horses, running into battle; ¹⁰ and they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings, and, in their tails, is their licence to injure men five months.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

shall men: Revelation 6:16, 2 Samuel 1:9, Job 3:20-22, Job 7:15, Job 7:16, Isaiah 2:19, Jeremiah 8:3, Hosea 10:8, John 4:8, John 4:9, Luke 23:30

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:67 - General Judges 8:21 - Rise thou Job 3:21 - long Job 6:9 - that it would Psalms 59:11 - Slay Isaiah 15:4 - his Jonah 4:9 - even Zechariah 14:12 - Their flesh

Cross-References

Genesis 4:14
Lo! thou has driven me out, this day, from off the face of the ground And from thy face, shall I be hid, So shall I become a wanderer and a fugitive in the earth. And it shall come to pass, whosoever findeth me, will slay me.

Genesis 5:1
This, is the record of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, In the likeness of God, made he him:

Genesis 9:2
and let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every living creature of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, - over everything that moveth along on the ground, and over all the fishes of the sea, - into your hand, have they been given.

Genesis 9:3
As for every moving thing that hath life, yours, shall it be, for food, - Like the green herb, have I given you all things.

Genesis 9:5
And surely your blood, of your lives, will I require, From the hand of every living creature, will I require it, - and from the hand of man From the hand of each ones brother, will I require the life of man:

Genesis 9:6
He that sheddeth man's blood, by man, shall his blood be shed, - For, in the image of God, made he man.

Genesis 9:12
And God said, This, is the sign of the covenant which I am granting betwixt me and you, and every living soul that is with you, - to age-abiding generations: -

Genesis 9:14
and it shall be when I draw a veil of cloud over the earth, - and the bow in the cloud appeareth,

Genesis 9:26
And he said, Blessed be Yahweh, God of Shem, - And let Cantata he their servant:

Genesis 9:27
God give extension to Japheth, But make his habitation in the tents of Shem, And let Canaan be their servant.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And in those days men shall seek death,.... Or desire to die, as Job did:

and shall not find it; or shall not die:

and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jeremiah 8:3. The ravages of the Saracens, their incursions, and the invasions by them, struck such terror into the inhabitants of divers parts of the empire, that they made death more eligible to them than life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And in those days shall men seek death ... - See the notes on Revelation 9:5. It is very easy to conceive of such a state of things as is here described, and, indeed, this has not been very uncommon in the world. It is a state where the distress is so great that people would consider death a relief, and where they anxiously look to the time when they may be released from their sufferings by death. In the case before us it is not intimated that they would lay violent hands on themselves, or that they would take any positive measures to end their sufferings; and this, perhaps, may be a circumstance of some importance to show that the persons referred to were servants of God. When it is said that “they would seek death,” it can only be meant that they would look out for it - or desire it - as the end of their sorrows. This is descriptive, as we shall see, of a particular period of the world; but the language is beautifully applicable to what occurs in all ages and in all lands.

There is always a great number of sufferers who are looking forward to death as a relief. In cells and dungeons; on beds of pain and languishing; in scenes of poverty and want; in blighted hopes and disappointed affections, how many are there who would be glad to die, and who have no hope of an end of suffering but in the grave! A few, by the pistol, by the halter, by poison, or by drowning, seek thus to end their woes. A large part look forward to death as a release, when, if the reality were known, death would furnish no such relief, for there are deeper and longer woes beyond the grave than there are this side of it. Compare the notes on Job 3:20-22. But to a portion death will be a relief. It will be an end of sufferings. They will find peace in the grave, and are assured they shall suffer no more. Such bear their trials with patience, for the end of all sorrow to them is near, and death will come to release their spirits from the suffering clay, and to bear them in triumph to a world where a pang shall never be felt, and a tear never shed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Revelation 9:6. In those days shall men seek death — So distressing shall be their sufferings and torment that they shall long for death in any form, to be rescued from the evils of life. There is a sentiment much like this in Maximianus, Eleg. i., ver. 111, commonly attributed to Cornelius Gallus:-

Nunc quia longa mihi gravis est et inutilis aetas,

Vivere cum nequeam, sit mihi posse mori?

O quam dura premit miseros conditio vitae!

Nec mors humano subjacet arbitrio.

Dulce mori miseris; sed mors optata recedit:

At cum tristis erit, praecipitata venit.

"Seeing that long life is both useless and burdensome

When we can no longer live comfortably, shall we be

permitted to die?

O how hard is the condition on which we hold life!

For death is not subjected to the will of man.

To die is sweet to the wretched; but wished-for death

flees away.

Yet when it is not desired, it comes with the hastiest

strides."

Job expresses the same sentiment, in the most plaintive manner: -

Why is light given to the miserable,

And life to the bitter of soul?

Who wait for death, but it is not;

And dig for it more than hid treasures.

They rejoice for it, and are glad,

And exult when they find the grave.

Job 3:20-22.