Revelation 21
1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,[a] for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there.
2. Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3. I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s Sh’khinah is with mankind, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and he himself, God-with-them, will be their God.[b]
4. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.”
5. Then the One sitting on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new!” Also he said, “Write, ‘These words are true and trustworthy!’”
6. And he said to me, “It is done! I am the ‘A’ and the ‘Z,’ the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty I myself will give water free of charge from the Fountain of Life.
7. He who wins the victory will receive these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
8. But as for the cowardly, the untrustworthy, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those involved with the occult and with drugs, idol-worshippers, and all liars — their destiny is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, the second death.”
9. One of the seven angels having the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues approached me and said, “Come! I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.”
10. He carried me off in the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God.
11. It had the Sh’khinah of God, so that its brilliance was like that of a priceless jewel, like a crystal-clear diamond.
12. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates; at the gates were twelve angels; and inscribed on the gates were the names of the twelve tribes of Isra’el.
13. There were three gates to the east, three gates to the north, three gates to the south and three gates to the west.
14. The wall of the city was built on twelve foundation-stones, and on these were the twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb.
15. The angel speaking with me had a gold measuring-rod with which to measure the city, its gates and its wall.
16. The city is laid out in a square, its length equal to its width. With his rod he measured the city at 1,500 miles, with length, width and height the same.
17. He measured its wall at 216 feet by human standards of measurement, which the angel was using.
18. The wall was made of diamond and the city of pure gold resembling pure glass.
19. The foundations of the city wall were decorated with all kinds of precious stones — the first foundation stone was diamond, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
20. the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise and the twelfth amethyst.
21. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate made of a single pearl. The city’s main street was pure gold, transparent as glass.
22. I saw no Temple in the city, for Adonai, God of heaven’s armies, is its Temple, as is the Lamb.
23. The city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s Sh’khinah gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
25. Its gates will never close, they stay open all day because night will not exist there,
26. and the honor and splendor of the nations will be brought into it.
27. Nothing impure may enter it, nor anyone who does shameful things or lies; the only ones who may enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Footnotes:
a. Revelation 21:1: Isaiah 65:17, 66:22
b. Revelation 21:3: Leviticus 26:11–12; Isaiah 7:14; 8:8, 10; Jeremiah 31:33(34); Ezekiel 37:27; 2 Chronicles 6:18