Albert Barnes Commentary Revelation 7:16

"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat:" — Revelation 7:16 (ASV)

They shall hunger no more. A considerable portion of the redeemed who will be there were, while on earth, subjected to the evils of famine; many even perished from hunger. In heaven, they will be subjected to that evil no more, for there will be no lack that will not be supplied.

The bodies which the redeemed will have—spiritual bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44)—will doubtless be nourished in some other way than by food, if they require any nourishment; and whatever that nourishment may be, it will be fully supplied. This passage is taken from Isaiah 49:10: They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them (see Barnes' commentary on Isaiah 49:10).

Neither thirst any more. As multitudes of the redeemed have been subjected to the evils of hunger, so have multitudes also been subjected to the pains of thirst. In prison, in pathless deserts, in times of drought when wells and fountains were dried up, they have suffered from this cause—a cause producing suffering perhaps as intense as any that humans endure (Psalms 63:1; Lamentations 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:27).

It is easy to conceive of persons suffering so intensely from thirst that the highest vision of felicity would be such a promise as that in the words before us: neither thirst any more.

Neither shall the sun light on them. It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to say that the word light here does not mean to enlighten, to give light to, or to shine on. The Greek is pesh—fall on—and the reference, probably, is to the intense and burning heat of the sun, commonly called a sun-stroke.

Excessive heat of the sun, causing great pain or sudden death, is not a very uncommon thing and must have been more common in the warm climates and burning sands of the countries in the vicinity of Palestine. The meaning here is that in heaven they will be free from this calamity.

Nor any heat. In Isaiah 49:10, from which this is quoted, the expression is the Hebrew word sharab. This term properly denotes heat or burning, and particularly the mirage—the excessive heat of a sandy desert producing a vapor that has a striking resemblance to water, and which often misleads the unwary traveler by its deceptive appearance (see Barnes' commentary on Isaiah 35:7).

The expression here is equivalent to intense heat. The meaning is that in heaven the redeemed will not be subjected to any such suffering as the traveler often experiences in the burning sands of the desert. This language would convey a most welcome idea to those who had been subjected to these sufferings, and it is one way of saying that, in heaven, the redeemed will be delivered from the troubles they suffer in this life.

Perhaps the whole image here is that of travelers who, after a long journey, exposed to hunger and thirst, wandering in the burning sands of the desert, and exposed to the fiery rays of the sun, at last reach their quiet and peaceful home, where they will find safety and abundance. The believer's journey from earth to heaven is such a pilgrimage.