The Great Multitude in White Robes

⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,^(A) standing before the throne^(B) and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes^(C) and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders^(F) and the four living creatures.^(G) They fell down on their faces^(H) before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes^(J)—who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes^(K) and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.^{(L) 15} Therefore,

3 See what great love^(A) the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!^(B) And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.^{(C) 2} Dear friends,^(D) now we are children of God,^(E) and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,^[a](F) we shall be like him,^(G) for we shall see him as he is.^{(H) 3} All who have this hope in him purify themselves,^(I) just as he is pure.^(J)