Revelation 21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The New Heaven and the New Earth

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.^{(A) 2} And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.^{(B) 3} And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”^{(E) 6} Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.^{(F) 7} Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. ⁸ But as for the cowardly, the faithless,^[f] the polluted, the murderers, the sexually immoral,^[g] the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”^(G)

Vision of the New Jerusalem

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”^{(H) 10} And in the spirit^[h] he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.^{(I) 11} It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.^{(J) 12} It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names that are the names^[i] of the twelve tribes of the Israelites:^{(K) 13} on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. ¹⁴ And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.^(L)

¹⁵ The angel^[j] who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.^{(M) 16} The city has four equal sides, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and width and height are equal. ¹⁷ He also measured its wall, one hundred forty-four cubits by human measurement, which the angel was using. ¹⁸ The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.

²² I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.^{(N) 24} The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.^{(O) 25} Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.^{(P) 26} People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷ But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.^(Q)