---
title: Revelation 6:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-6-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-6-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 6:10
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 6:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Until when, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, are you refraining from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Revelation 6:10 symbolically. The "souls under the altar" are not literally conscious — Revelation is a symbolic book, and the souls' cry for justice is a figure of speech for the unavenged blood of martyrs, comparable to Abel's blood crying from the ground in Genesis 4:10. Soul-sleep doctrine is preserved by treating the cry as metaphorical, not as evidence of conscious post-mortem existence.

## Protestant Usage

Acknowledge the symbolism in Revelation, then ask what the symbol must depict. The souls cry out specific words ("Until when, Sovereign Lord, holy and true?"). They ask a question. They are given white robes (v11) — you cannot clothe a metaphor for unavenged blood. They are told to wait — you cannot instruct a figure of speech. The Abel comparison backfires: Abel's blood "cries" is a single metaphorical verb; these souls speak, ask, receive, are clothed, and are told to rest. John's symbol depicts conscious persons, not annihilated non-existence. And every NT author depicts the dead as conscious — Paul (Phil 1:23, 2 Cor 5:8), Jesus (Luke 16:22-23, 23:43), Peter (1 Peter 3:19), and now John.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Souls Under the Altar Cry Out](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/revelation-6-souls-under-altar.md) — Revelation 6:9–11 [Soul & Hell]