Passage

2 Thessalonians 1.7

Book: 2 Thessalonians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: 6. if so be that it is righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you,

7. and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire,

rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: 9. who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of God’s Kingdom, for which you also suffer. 6. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,

7. and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, 9. who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: 6. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

7. And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, ^{his: Gr. the angels of his power}

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ^{taking: or, yielding} 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. a token of the righteous judgment of God, for your being counted worthy of the reign of God, for which also ye suffer, 6. since [it is] a righteous thing with God to give back to those troubling you, trouble,

7. and to you who are troubled, rest with us in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with messengers of his power,

in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those not knowing God, and to those not obeying the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ; 9. who shall suffer justice, destruction age-during, from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his strength, (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing with Silvanus and Timothy named as co-senders (1:1); Paul takes the pen himself for the closing greeting (3:17).
Audience: The church at Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a free city on the Via Egnatia. Paul had planted the congregation only months earlier (Acts 17:1-9) and left the city under duress; the believers were still under local pressure, and had been unsettled by a report that the day of the Lord had already arrived (2:2).
Location: Most probably Corinth, where Silvanus and Timothy were with Paul (Acts 18:5), written shortly after 1 Thessalonians.
Time period: c. AD 50-52. The date is anchored by the Gallio inscription at Delphi, which places the proconsulship of Achaia held by Gallio (Acts 18:12) at roughly AD 51-52.

Theological reading

Relief, not revenge. The word rendered "rest" or "relief" is anesis, which means the loosening of something stretched tight. It is not a promise of comfort in general but of the release of a pressure the readers are actually under. Paul does not tell an afflicted church that its affliction is imaginary or unimportant; he tells it that the pressure has a terminus.

"To you who are afflicted, along with us." Paul includes himself in the category. Whatever consolation he offers, he is not offering it from outside the situation.

The timing is tied to the revelation. The relief arrives "at the revealing of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels." Apokalypsis, unveiling, is the same word family Paul uses for the disclosure of the lawless one in chapter 2. The two unveilings frame the letter: something hidden is restrained now and will be shown, and someone hidden in heaven now will also be shown, and the second ends the first.

Judgment as an aspect of comfort. Modern readers often separate the pastoral note of verse 7 from the judgment language of verses 8 and 9, but the Greek runs it as one sentence. The comfort Paul offers a persecuted congregation is precisely that the moral situation will not remain permanently inverted.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G0602 - apokalypsis, apokalypsis, Strong's G0602
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962
G2424 - Iesous, Iesous, Strong's G2424

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

OT vs NT God Objection Defeater, via 2 Thessalonians 1.7-9

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.