Revius was born in Deventer, the son of the town's mayor, Ryck Reefsen, during the Dutch Revolt. Not long after his birth, in 1587, Deventer fell into Spanish hands and his mother fled with him to Amsterdam where he was raised. He was educated at Leiden (1604–07) and Franeker (1607–10), and in 1610-1612 visited various foreign universities, particularly the Academy of Saumur, Montauban, and Orléans. Here, he got acquainted with Renaissance poetry which would have a big influence on his own poetry. Returning to the Netherlands, he held brief pastorates at Zeddam, Winterswijk, and Aalten in 1613, and by Oct., 1614, he had become pastor in his native city of Deventer, where he remained twenty-seven years. In 1618 he was appointed librarian of the Fraterhuis, and in the same year the Synod of Dort assigned him a part in the new revision of the Dutch translation of the Old Testament; the Statenvertaling. The committee of translators and revisers, which convened at Leiden in 1633-34, made Revius secretary. He likewise took an active part in the establishment of the Athenaeum at Deventer in 1630, and was influential in calling the first professors. From 1641 he was regent at the State Seminary at the University of Leiden.

His closing years were embittered by the rise of Cartesianism, to which he was intensely opposed. A rare Hebrew scholar, Revius was also a prolific writer. He showed, however, a domineering disposition and exercised a vehement polemic, as shown in his struggle with Cartesianism and the Remonstrants. While endeavoring to avoid the contemporary controversy whether men might wear long hair, he was obliged to defend his moderate position. He died in Leiden.