And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Sir - `Lord.' 'Aleph (') B C, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, Cyprian, read, 'My Lord.' A omits 'My.'
Thou knowest - from Ezekiel 37:3. Comparatively ignorant ourselves, we ought to look upwards for divine knowledge.
Came - `come:' implying, they are just come.
Great tribulation, х tees (G3588) thlipseoos (G2347) tees (G3588) megalees (G3173)] - 'THE great tribulation:' 'the tribulation, the great one,' to which the martyrs were exposed under the fifth seal; which, Christ says, is to precede His coming (Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29-30, "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world"), followed by the same signs as the sixth seal: cf. Daniel 12:1: the climax including all the tribulation which saints of all ages have passed through. This Revelation 7:1-17 recapitulates the vision of the six seals, Revelation 6:1-17 filling up the outline there in what affects the faithful. There, however, their number was waiting to be completed; here it is completed; they are taken out of the earth before the judgments on the anti-Christian apostasy: with their Lord, they, and all His faithful witnesses of past ages, wait for His and their coming to be glorified and reign together. Meanwhile, in contrast with their previous sufferings, they are exempt from the hunger, thirst, and scorching heats of their earthly life (Revelation 7:16), and are refreshed by the Lamb of God Himself (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 14:1-4; Revelation 14:13): an earnest of the post-millennial final state (Revelation 21:4-6; Revelation 22:1-5).
Washed their robes ... white in the blood of the Lamb - (Isaiah 1:18; Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5: cf. Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:3-5.) Faith applies to the heart the purifying blood; once for all for justification, continually throughout life for sanctification.