Revelation 7:1-8
Expanded Bible
The 144,000 People of Israel
7 After ·the vision of these things [L this] I saw four angels standing at the four corners [C from every direction] of the earth. The angels were ·holding [restraining] the four winds [Dan. 7:2; 8:8; 11:4] of the earth to keep them from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the ·east [L rising of the sun] who had the seal [5:1] of the living God. And he ·called out [cried out; shouted] in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given power to ·harm [damage] the earth and the sea. 3 He said to them, “Do not ·harm [damage] the land or the sea or the trees until we ·mark with a sign [place a seal upon] the foreheads [C to spare them from harm; Ezek. 9:4–6] of the ·people who serve [L the slaves/servants of] our God.” 4 Then I heard how many people were ·marked with the sign [sealed]. There were one hundred forty-four thousand [C the square of 12 multiplied by 1000; a symbolic number indicating completeness] from every tribe of the ·people [children; sons] of Israel.
5 From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were ·marked with the sign [sealed],
from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,
6 from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Manasseh [C one of the two sons of Joseph; he replaces Dan in the list, perhaps because the tribe of Dan fell into idolatry; Judg. 18] twelve thousand,
7 from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,
8 from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand [C in OT lists Manasseh and Ephraim are named instead of their father Joseph; here Joseph replaces Ephraim, perhaps because of Ephraim’s bad reputation],
and from the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were ·marked with the sign [sealed].
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