John sees 144 000 people
1After these things happened, I saw 4 angels standing at the 4 corners of the earth and stopping the 4 winds that blew on the earth. So, no wind could blow, not on earth, not at sea and not among the trees. 2Then I saw another angel coming from the east. He had the seal of God, who lives forever. God had told the 4 angels that they could destroy the land and sea. But the other angel shouted_loudly to those 4 angels 3and said: ‘You must not destroy the earth and sea and trees now. You must wait until we have put a mark on the foreheads of the people who serve our God.’
4Someone told me how many people had God's mark on their foreheads. There were 144 000 people and they came from each tribe of Israel:
5There were 12 000 who came from the Judah tribe, 12 000 from the Reuben tribe, 12 000 from the Gad tribe, 612 000 from the Asher tribe, 12 000 from the Naphtali tribe, 12 000 from the Manasseh tribe, 712 000 from the Simeon tribe, 12 000 from the Levi tribe, 12 000 from the Issachar tribe, 812 000 from the Zebulun tribe, 12 000 from the Joseph tribe and 12 000 from the Benjamin tribe.
John sees a big crowd of people
9After this I looked and I saw a lot of people together. There were so many people that no one could count them. They came from all lands, tribes, nations and languages. They stood before God's throne and before the Lamb. They had white clothes and they had branches of palm trees in their hands. 10They shouted_loudly and said:
‘Our God sits on the throne.
He and the Lamb
have helped us to defeat Satan.’
11All the angels stood around God's throne and around the elders and around the 4 living_beings. The angels fell down with their faces onto the ground and they worshipped God. 12They said:
‘Amen. We praise our God.
We praise Him, our King.
He has the wisdom.
We thank Him, and we honour Him.
He is very strong.
He can do anything that He wants to do.
We want to praise Him forever.
Amen.’
13Then one of the elders asked me: ‘Who are those people with the white clothes? Where do they come from?’
14I said to him: ‘Sir, you know who they are.’
He said to me: ‘Those people have suffered a lot because they belong to the Lamb. They have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb and have made them clean and white. 15That is why they stand before the throne of God. They now serve God in his temple every day and every night. God, who sits on the throne, will protect them. 16They will never be hungry or thirsty again. The sun will not burn them. Nothing will hurt or burn them. 17Because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will be their Shepherd. He will take them to fountains and give them water that gives life. And God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes.’
