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Revelation 21

1I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea is no more. 2I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God's tent is with humanity. He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more. The first things have passed away.”

5The one seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making all things new.” He says, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6He said to me, “They have come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But as for the cowardly and faithless, the abominable and murderers, the sexually immoral and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their share is in the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

9One of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10He carried me away in the Spirit onto a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11having God's glory. Its radiance was like a most precious stone, like jasper shining clear as crystal. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels. Names were inscribed on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13On the east were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14The city's wall had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the Lamb's twelve apostles.

15The one speaking with me had a golden measuring reed to measure the city and its gates and its wall. 16The city lies square, its length equal to its width. He measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17He measured its wall: one hundred forty-four cubits, by human measure, which is also the angel's. 18The wall was built of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19The foundations of the city's wall were adorned with every precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each of the gates was made of a single pearl. The city's main street was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for God's glory illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. 25Its gates will certainly never be shut by day, for there will be no night there. 26They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is abominable or false, but only those written in the Lamb's book of life.

Translation notes 4

21:1–4 — New creation and peoples. The city comes down from heaven; the scene is not rewritten as humanity's departure from earth. “His peoples” follows the base's plural, where other witnesses have “his people.” The base does not add “their God” at the end of verse 3. The tent and dwelling language expresses God's presence among humanity.

21:6–8 — Completion and sonship. “They have come to pass” preserves the plural verb, most naturally referring to the announced things. The promise “he will be my son” retains the gendered inheritance image while addressing whoever overcomes. “Faithless” can also be rendered unbelieving or unfaithful; it stands here in contrast to faithful endurance.

21:12–21 — Dimensions and stones. Twelve thousand stadia is roughly 1,380 miles; 144 cubits is roughly 216 feet. The wall's measurement is not explicitly labeled height or thickness. The city's equal length, width, and height create a vast cube, recalling a sanctuary's innermost room. Ancient gemstone names do not map with certainty onto modern mineral classifications.

21:22–27 — Temple, nations, and gates. God and the Lamb replace a separate temple building. Nations and kings remain in the picture, with open gates and an explicit exclusion of uncleanness. The translation preserves all these elements without supplying how every group relates to the preceding judgments.