⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under^(A) the altar^(B) the souls of those who had been slain^(C) because of the word of God^(D) and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long,^(E) Sovereign Lord,^(F) holy and true,^(G) until you judge the inhabitants of the earth^(H) and avenge our blood?”^{(I) 11} Then each of them was given a white robe,^(J) and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters,^[a] were killed just as they had been.^(K)

Awaiting the New Body

5 For we know that if the earthly^(A) tent^(B) we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan,^(C) longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,^{(D) 3} because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan^(E) and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,^(F) so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.^(G)

⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight.^{(H) 8} We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.^{(I) 9} So we make it our goal to please him,^(J) whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,^(A) with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel^(B) and with the trumpet call of God,^(C) and the dead in Christ will rise first.^{(D) 17} After that, we who are still alive and are left^(E) will be caught up together with them in the clouds^(F) to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord^(G) forever.

²⁰ But our citizenship^(A) is in heaven.^(B) And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,^{(C) 21} who, by the power^(D) that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies^(E) so that they will be like his glorious body.^(F)

⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery:^(A) We will not all sleep,^(B) but we will all be changed^(C)— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,^(D) the dead^(E) will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable^(F) must clothe itself with the imperishable,^(G) and the mortal with immortality.