Revelation 21

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ;[*a] the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.

² I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.

³ Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people,[*b] and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them.

⁴ He will wipe away all tears from their eyes;[*c] there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.’

⁵ Then the One sitting on the throne spoke: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ he said. ‘Write this: that what I am saying is sure and will come true.’

⁶ And then he said, ‘It is already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty;

⁷ it is the rightful inheritance of the one who proves victorious; and I will be his God and he a son to me.[*d]

⁸ But the legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and fornicators, and for fortune-tellers, idolaters or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur.’

⁹ One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married’.

¹⁰ In the spirit, he took me to the top of an enormous high mountain[*e] and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven.

¹¹ It had all the radiant glory of God[*f] and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond.

¹² The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel;

¹³ on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates[*g].

¹⁴ The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ The angel that was speaking to me was carrying a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and wall.

¹⁶ The plan of the city is perfectly square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs in length and in breadth, and equal in height.

¹⁷ He measured its wall, and this was a hundred and forty-four cubits high – the angel was using the ordinary cubit.

¹⁸ The wall was built of diamond, and the city of pure gold, like polished glass.

¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first with diamond, the second lapis lazuli, the third turquoise, the fourth crystal,

²⁰ the fifth agate, the sixth ruby, the seventh gold quartz, the eighth malachite, the ninth topaz, the tenth emerald, the eleventh sapphire and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made of a single pearl, and the main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

²² I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple,

²³ and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

²⁴ The pagan nations will live by its light[*h] and the kings of the earth will bring it their treasures.

²⁵ The gates of it will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there –

²⁶ and the nations will come, bringing their treasure and their wealth.

²⁷ Nothing unclean may come into it: no one who does what is loathsome or false, but only those who are listed in the Lamb’s book of life.