Revelation 21
21
Everything New
1I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.
2I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.
3-5I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”
6-8Then he said, “It’s happened. I’m A to Z. I’m the Beginning, I’m the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I’ll be God to them, they’ll be sons and daughters to me. But for the rest—the feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars—for them it’s Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!”
The City of Light
9-12a One of the Seven Angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me: “Come here. I’ll show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.” He took me away in the Spirit to an enormous, high mountain and showed me Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God.
12b-14 The City shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light. She had a wall majestic and high with twelve gates. At each gate stood an Angel, and on the gates were inscribed the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. The wall was set on twelve foundations, the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb inscribed on them.
15-21a The Angel speaking with me had a gold measuring stick to measure the City, its gates, and its wall. The City was laid out in a perfect square. He measured the City with the measuring stick: fifteen hundred miles, its length, width, and height all equal. Using the standard measure, the Angel measured the thickness of its wall: seventy-two yards. The wall was jasper, the color of Glory, and the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. The foundations of the City walls were garnished with every precious gem imaginable: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate a single pearl.
21b-27 The main street of the City was pure gold, translucent as glass. But there was no sign of a Temple, for the Lord God—the Sovereign-Strong—and the Lamb are the Temple. The City doesn’t need sun or moon for light. God’s Glory is its light, the Lamb its lamp! The nations will walk in its light and earth’s kings bring in their splendor. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there won’t be any night. They’ll bring the glory and honor of the nations into the City. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will get in.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Revelation 21
21
1 I saw the new heaven and the new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more.
2 And I, John, saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: "Behold the tabernacle of God with men. And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be their God with them.
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. And neither mourning, nor crying out, nor grief shall be anymore. For the first things have passed away."
5 And the One who was sitting upon the throne, said, "Behold, I make all things new." And he said to me, "Write, for these words are entirely faithful and true."
6 And he said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To those who thirst, I will give freely from the fountain of the water of life.
7 Whoever prevails shall possess these things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and drug users, and idolaters, and all liars, these shall be a part of the pool burning with fire and sulphur, which is the second death."
9 And one of the seven Angels, those holding the bowls filled with the seven last afflictions, approached and spoke with me, saying: "Come, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10 And he took me up in spirit to a great and high mountain. And he showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 having the glory of God. And its light was like that of a precious stone, even like that of the jasper stone or like crystal.
12 And it had a wall, great and high, having twelve gates. And at the gates were twelve Angels. And names were written upon them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.
13 On the East were three gates, and on the North were three gates, and on the South were three gates, and on the West were three gates.
14 And the wall of the City had twelve foundations. And upon them were the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
15 And he who was speaking with me was holding a golden measuring reed, in order to measure the City, and its gates and wall.
16 And the city is laid out as a square, and so its length is as great as the width. And he measured the city with the golden reed for twelve thousand stadia, and its length and height and breadth were equal.
17 And he measured its wall as one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, which is of an Angel.
18 And the structure of its wall was of jasper stone. Yet truly, the city itself was of pure gold, similar to pure glass.
19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was of jasper, the second was of sapphire, the third was of chalcedony, the fourth was of emerald,
20 the fifth was of sardonyx, the sixth was of sardius, the seventh was of chrysolite, the eighth was of beryl, the ninth was of topaz, the tenth was of chrysoprasus, the eleventh was of jacinth, the twelfth was of amethyst.
21 And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, one for each, so that each gate was made from a single pearl. And the main street of the city was of pure gold, similar to transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb.
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine in it. For the glory of God has illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp.
24 And the nations shall walk by its light. And the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it.
25 And its gates shall not be closed throughout the day, for there shall be no night in that place.
26 And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
27 There shall not enter into it anything defiled, nor anything causing an abomination, nor anything false, but only those who have been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb.
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