Revelation 1:9-20

Holman Christian Standard Bible

John’s Vision of the Risen Lord

⁹ I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s word and the testimony about Jesus.^{[a](A) 10} I was in the Spirit^[b][c](B) on the Lord’s day,^[d] and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet ¹¹ saying, “Write on a scroll^[e] what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹² I turned to see whose voice^(C) it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven gold lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man,^[f](D) dressed in a long robe and with a gold sash wrapped around His chest. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool—white as snow—and His eyes like a fiery flame. ¹⁵ His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of cascading^[g] waters.^{(E) 16} He had seven stars in His right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth,^(F) and His face was shining like the sun at midday.^[h]

¹⁷ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last,^{(G) 18} and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this. ²⁰ The secret of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels^[i] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands^[j] are the seven churches.