¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him; but the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. ¹² But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God. ¹³ They were born not of a bloodline, nor of human desire, nor of man’s will, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory,^[a] the glory of the one and only^[b] from the Father, full of grace and truth.

144,000 Marked with a Seal

7 After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth^[a] so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or against any tree. ² Then I saw another angel coming up from the east,^[b] having the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels who were permitted to harm the earth and the sea, ³ saying, “Do no harm to the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”^[c]

⁴ Now I heard the number of those marked with the seal:

144,000 from every tribe of Bnei-Yisrael—

⁵ 12,000 from the tribe of Judah;

12,000 from the tribe of Reuben;

12,000 from the tribe of Gad;

⁶ 12,000 from the tribe of Asher;

12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali;

12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh;

⁷ 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon;

12,000 from the tribe of Levi;

12,000 from the tribe of Issachar;

⁸ 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun;

12,000 from the tribe of Joseph;

12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin.

Countless Worshipers Before the Throne

⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a vast multitude that no one could count—from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues—was standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes, with palm branches^[d] in their hands ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, saying,

A New Heaven and a New Earth

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.^[a]

² I also saw the holy city—the New Jerusalem—coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ^{[b] 3} I also heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,