Revelation 4-5

New Testament for Everyone

In the throne room

4 After this I looked—and there was a door in heaven, standing open! The voice like a trumpet, which I had heard speaking with me at the beginning, spoke again. “Come up here,” it said, “and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

² At once I was in the spirit. There in heaven stood a throne, and someone was sitting on it. ³ The seated figure had the appearance of a jasper stone or a carnelian, and there was a rainbow around the throne, looking like an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and sitting on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white robes, and with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ Flashes of lightning, rumblings and thunderclaps were coming from the throne, and in front of the throne seven lampstands, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning with fire. ^6a In front of the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Praise to the creator

^6b In the middle of the throne, and all around the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. ⁷ The first creature was like a lion, the second creature was like an ox, the third creature had a human face, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. ⁸ Each of the four creatures had six wings, and they were full of eyes all round and inside. Day and night they take no rest, as they say,

⁹ When the creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to the one who is sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down in front of the one who is sitting on the throne, and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They throw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying, ¹¹ “O Lord our God, you deserve to receive glory and honor and power, because you created all things; they existed and were created because that is what you willed.”

The lion, the lamb

5 I saw that there was a scroll in the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. The scroll was written on the inside and the outside, and it was sealed with seven seals. ² I saw a strong angel announcing in a loud voice, “Does anybody deserve to open the scroll, to undo its seals?” ³ And nobody in heaven or on the earth or under the earth could open the scroll or look at it. ⁴ I burst into tears because it seemed that there was nobody who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. ⁵ One of the elders, however, spoke to me. “Don’t cry,” he said. “Look! The lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has won the victory! He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶ Then I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb. It was standing there as though it had been slaughtered; it had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ The lamb came up and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne.

Worthy is the lamb!

⁸ When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down in front of the lamb. They each had a harp, and they each had golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s holy people. ⁹ They sing a new song, which goes like this:

¹¹ As I watched, I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, ¹² and they were declaring in full voice,

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, and in the sea, and everything that is in them, saying,

¹⁴ “Amen!” cried the four living creatures. And the elders fell down and worshiped.