Praise from the Great Crowd

⁹ After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.

¹³ took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted,

⁹ And they sang a new song with these words:

¹³ Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?”

¹⁴ And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.”

Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in^[a] the great tribulation.^[b] They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.

¹¹ Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters^[a]—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.

God’s Mercy Is for Everyone

²⁵ I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters,^[a] so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.

¹¹ Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they, too, will be my people. I will live among you, and you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me to you.

¹⁷ In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ All nations will come there to honor the Lord. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

Psalm 117