Revelation 13:9

The prophet's nota bene introduces (Revelation 13:10) what is either (a) a demand for patience and non-resistance, or (b) an encouragement to it. (a) “Be patient. If captivity is your destiny from God, accept it. If any one is (destined) for captivity, to captivity he goes (in God's order, ὑπάγει in a future sense). Show your patient faith in God by abstaining from the use of force” (cf. Matthew 26:52). This interpretation (rejecting συνάγει or ἀπάγει in 10 a) is preferable to (b) that which reads (or even understands; with B. Weiss) συνάγει, ἀπάγει, or ὑπάγει (so some cursives and versions) in 10 a, and thus finds in the words a promise of requital rather than an appeal for endurance. The fate inflicted on Christians will recoil on their persecutors (cf. Revelation 14:12). Imprisonment or captivity and death were the normal fates of the age for criminals who refused to invoke the emperor's genius (cf. Jos. Bell. iii. 10. 10, vi. 8. 2, Philo: de Flacc. 11, leg. ad Gaium, 32). A variation of this meaning would be: use force, and you (Christians) will suffer for it. The whole stanza is written for saints who, like Sigurd, are not born for blenching. ὧδε κ. τ. λ. Josephus (Bell. iii. 5. 8, etc.) had just given, from prudential motives, a similar warning to Jews against participating in any anti-Roman movement. It was always hard to disabuse the Oriental mind of the idea that religious faith must be bound up with fate and fighting. cf. Introd. § 6.