1. Revelation 20:14 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is meant by “the lake of fire”?

Revelation 20:14 (ESV)

14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

John had previously referenced the “lake of fire” in Revelation 19:20 as the destination of the beast and the false prophet and in Revelation 20:10 as the destination of the devil. “Fire” depicts the (destroying) anger of God (Hosea 8:5; Nahum 1:6; Isaiah 66:15–16; Jeremiah 15:14; Ezekiel 21:31), while the addition of the word “lake” underscores the size of the fire, that is, the intensity and the reach of God’s anger. A “lake of fire” is far greater than simply a furnace (Daniel 3:6, Daniel 3:19) and amounts to a description of hell.