Revelation 21

The new heaven and the new earth

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.^•²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.^•³And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying:^•

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,^•and He will have His tabernacle with them,^•and they will be His peoples,^•and God Himself will be with them,^•⁴and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,^•and death will be no more,^•nor will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore;^•the first things have passed away.^•

⁵And He who is seated on the throne said: Behold, I make all things new. And He says: Write, for these words are faithful and true.^•⁶And He said to me: It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who is thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.^•⁷The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.^•⁸But as for the cowardly, and unfaithful, and abominable, and murderers, and the immoral, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.^•

The new Jerusalem

⁹And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying: Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.^•¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,^•¹¹having the glory of God; its radiance was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;^•¹²having a great and high wall, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel:^•¹³on the east, three gates; and on the north, three gates; and on the south, three gates; and on the west, three gates.^•¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.^•

¹⁵The one who spoke with me had as a measure a golden reed, to measure the city, and its gates, and its wall.^•¹⁶The city lies foursquare, and its length is as great as its width. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand stadia; its length, and width, and height are equal.^•¹⁷And he measured its wall: one hundred and forty-four cubits, by a man’s measure, which is the angel’s.^•¹⁸The material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass.^•¹⁹The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone: the first foundation, jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;^•²⁰the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.^•²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each of the gates was of a single pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.^•

²²And I saw no sanctuary in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, is its sanctuary, and the Lamb.^•²³The city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.^•²⁴The nations will walk by its light; and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.^•²⁵Its gates will never be shut by day, for there will be no night there;^•²⁶and they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.^•²⁷And nothing profane will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the book of life of the Lamb.^•

Notes

21:1 “A new heaven and a new earth”: Gr. καινός, “new” in quality (cf. 2:17; 3:12; 5:9; Isa 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet 3:13). “Had passed away”: Gr. ἀπῆλθαν, lit. “went away” (cf. 20:11; 21:4); the Textus Receptus reads παρῆλθε. “The sea is no more”: cf. 13:1; 20:13. Variant: Codex Alexandrinus reads “and the sea I saw no more”. ↩
21:2 “The holy city, the new Jerusalem”: cf. 3:12; 11:2; Isa 52:1; Heb 11:10, 16; 12:22. “From God”: Gr. ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ (cf. 3:12; 21:10). “Bride”: Gr. νύμφη (cf. 18:23; 21:9; 22:17). “Adorned”: Gr. κοσμέω (cf. 21:19; Isa 61:10). Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “And I, John, saw the holy city”. ↩
21:3 “From the throne”: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “from heaven”. “Tabernacle… have His tabernacle”: Gr. σκηνή… σκηνώσει (cf. 7:15; 12:12; 13:6; John 1:14); an echo of Lev 26:11–12 and Ezek 37:27. “His peoples”: Gr. λαοί, plural (cf. Zech 2:11 (Heb. 2:15)); the Byzantine text reads the singular, “His people”. Variant: Codex Alexandrinus and the Textus Receptus add “their God” at the end of the verse. ↩
21:4 “Wipe away every tear”: cf. 7:17; Isa 25:8. “Death will be no more”: cf. 20:14; 1 Cor 15:26, 54. “Mourning”: Gr. πένθος (cf. 18:7–8). “Crying”: Gr. κραυγή, lit. “outcry, shout”. “Pain”: Gr. πόνος (cf. 16:10–11). “The first things have passed away”: cf. Isa 43:18–19; 65:16–17; 2 Cor 5:17. Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “for the first things have passed away”; the Textus Receptus adds “God” after “will wipe away”. ↩
21:5 “Behold, I make all things new”: Gr. καινὰ ποιῶ πάντα (cf. Isa 43:19). “And He says”: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus add “to me”. “Faithful and true”: cf. 3:14; 19:9, 11; 22:6; the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “true and faithful”. ↩
21:6 “It is done”: Gr. γέγοναν, perfect plural, lit. “They are done”, referring to “all things” in v. 5 (cf. 16:17). Variants: Codex Sinaiticus and the Byzantine text read γέγονα; the Textus Receptus reads the singular γέγονε. “The Alpha and the Omega”: cf. 1:8; 22:13. “The Beginning and the End”: Gr. ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος (cf. 3:14; 22:13; Isa 44:6). “To the one who is thirsty… freely”: Gr. δωρεάν (cf. 7:16–17; 22:17; Isa 55:1; John 4:10, 14). ↩
21:7 “The one who conquers”: cf. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21. “Will inherit these things”: the Textus Receptus reads “will inherit all things”. “I will be his God, and he will be My son”: lit. “I will be God to him, and he will be son to Me” (cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26–27 (Heb. 89:27–28) [LXX 88:27–28]; Jer 31:33 [LXX 38:33]). ↩
21:8 “Unfaithful”: Gr. ἄπιστοι, in contrast with the “faithful” (πιστοί) words of v. 5; or “unbelieving”. “Abominable”: Gr. ἐβδελυγμένοι, “those who have become abominable” (cf. 17:4–5; 21:27). “Murderers”: Gr. φονεῖς (cf. 9:21). “The immoral”: Gr. πόρνοι, those who practice prostitution, πορνεία (cf. 2:14, 20–21; 22:15). “Sorcerers”: Gr. φάρμακοι (cf. 9:21; 18:23; 22:15). “The second death”: cf. 2:11; 20:6, 14. Variant: the Byzantine text adds “and sinners” after “unfaithful”. ↩
21:9 “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls”: cf. 15:1, 7; 17:1. “Full”: Gr. γεμόντων, which in the Greek agrees with “angels”; rendered by the sense, as in the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus, which make it agree with “bowls” (γεμούσας). “The bride, the wife of the Lamb”: cf. 19:7–8; 21:2. The phrase mirrors 17:1: the bride-city in contrast with the prostitute-city. ↩
21:10 “Carried me away in the Spirit”: Gr. ἀπήνεγκέν με ἐν πνεύματι, as in 17:3 (cf. 1:10; 4:2). “A great and high mountain”: cf. Ezek 40:2; Isa 2:2. “The holy city, Jerusalem”: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “the great city, the holy Jerusalem”. ↩
21:11 “The glory of God”: cf. 15:8; 21:23; Isa 60:1–2; Ezek 43:2–5. “Radiance”: Gr. φωστήρ, “luminary, brilliance”. “Jasper”: cf. 4:3; 21:18–19. “Clear as crystal”: Gr. κρυσταλλίζω, “to shine like crystal” (cf. 4:6; 22:1). ↩
21:12 “Gates”: Gr. πυλών, the gate with its gateway (cf. 22:14). “Names inscribed… of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel”: cf. 7:4–8; Ezek 48:30–34; Ex 28:21. ↩
21:13 “On the east… on the west”: lit. “from the rising… from the setting” (cf. Ezek 48:31–34; Luke 13:29). ↩
21:14 “Foundations”: Gr. θεμέλιοι (cf. Heb 11:10; Eph 2:20). “Twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”: cf. Matt 10:2; the Textus Receptus reads “and in them the names”. ↩
21:15 “Reed”: Gr. κάλαμος, a measuring reed (cf. 11:1; Ezek 40:3, 5; Zech 2:1–2 (Heb. 2:5–6)). “As a measure”: Gr. μέτρον; the Textus Receptus omits it. ↩
21:16 “Lies foursquare”: Gr. τετράγωνος κεῖται (cf. Ezek 43:16; 48:16–20); equal in length, width and height, like the Most Holy Place (1 Kgs 6:20). “Twelve thousand stadia”: about 2,220 kilometers (1,380 miles); one stadion, about 185 meters (607 feet) (cf. 14:20). The number 12 × 1,000 takes up 7:4–8. ↩
21:17 “One hundred and forty-four cubits”: about 65 meters (216 feet); one cubit, about 45 centimeters (18 inches). The number 12 × 12 takes up 7:4; 14:1. It is not said whether the measure is the height or the thickness of the wall. “By a man’s measure, which is the angel’s”: that is, the angel used the ordinary human measure. ↩
21:18 “Material”: Gr. ἐνδώμησις, “structure, building material”. “Pure gold, like pure glass”: Gr. καθαρός in both expressions (cf. 21:21). ↩
21:19 “Adorned”: Gr. κοσμέω (cf. 21:2). “Every kind of precious stone”: Gr. παντὶ λίθῳ τιμίῳ, lit. “every precious stone”; cf. Ex 28:17–20; Isa 54:11–12; Ezek 28:13. The twelve stones correspond, broadly, to those of the high priest’s breastpiece. “Sapphire”: Gr. σάπφιρος, probably lapis lazuli. ↩
21:20 The exact identification of some stones is uncertain. “Sardonyx”: Gr. σαρδόνυξ. “Sardius”: Gr. σάρδιον (cf. 4:3). “Chrysolite”: Gr. χρυσόλιθος, lit. “gold stone”. “Chrysoprase”: Gr. χρυσόπρασος, a golden-green stone. “Jacinth”: Gr. ὑάκινθος (cf. 9:17). ↩
21:21 “Pearls”: Gr. μαργαρῖται (cf. 17:4; 18:12, 16; Matt 13:45–46). “Street”: Gr. πλατεῖα, the main street (cf. 11:8; 22:2). “Transparent glass”: Gr. ὕαλος διαυγής; the Textus Receptus reads διαφανής. ↩
21:22 “Sanctuary”: Gr. ναός (cf. 3:12; 7:15; 11:19). The sanctuary of the city is the presence of God and of the Lamb (cf. 21:3; 22:3–4; John 2:19–21), and the city itself has the cubic form of the Most Holy Place (cf. 21:16; 1 Kgs 6:20). Alternative reading: the verse stresses the primacy of the divine presence, before which any structure becomes secondary. “The Lord God, the Almighty”: cf. 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3. ↩
21:23 “No need of the sun, nor of the moon”: cf. 22:5; Isa 60:19–20. “Has illuminated it”: Gr. ἐφώτισεν, aorist. “Its lamp is the Lamb”: Gr. λύχνος (cf. 18:23; 22:5; John 8:12). ↩
21:24 “The nations will walk by its light”: Gr. διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς αὐτῆς, lit. “through its light” (cf. Isa 60:3, 5, 11). “Their glory”: Gr. αὐτῶν, the glory of the kings. “Bring”: present in the Greek. Variants: the Byzantine text reads “bring to it glory and honor of the nations”; the Textus Receptus reads “the nations of those who are saved will walk in its light” and “their glory and honor”. ↩
21:25 “Will never be shut by day”: Gr. οὐ μὴ κλεισθῶσιν (cf. Isa 60:11; Zech 14:7). “There will be no night”: cf. 22:5. ↩
21:26 “The glory and the honor of the nations”: cf. Isa 60:5, 11; 66:12. ↩
21:27 “Nothing profane”: Gr. πᾶν κοινόν, “everything common, profane”; the Textus Receptus reads κοινοῦν, “that which defiles”. “Abomination and falsehood”: cf. 21:8; 22:15. “Written in the book of life of the Lamb”: cf. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; Isa 52:1; Ezek 44:9. ↩