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Revelation 7

1After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the earth's four winds so that no wind would blow on the earth or the sea or any tree. 2I saw another angel rising from the sunrise, with the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given permission to harm the earth and the sea, 3saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the slaves of our God on their foreheads.” 4I heard the number of those sealed: one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 5From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand sealed; from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; 6from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand; 7from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; 8from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand sealed.

9After these things I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could count, from every nation and tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cry out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. They fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

13One of the elders addressed me: “These people dressed in white robes—who are they, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great affliction. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Because of this they are before God's throne and serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16They will no longer hunger or thirst, and neither the sun nor any scorching heat will strike them, 17because the Lamb in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Translation notes 3

7:1–8 — Seal and tribes. The seal marks God's ownership and protection. The list is retained as given: it includes Levi, Joseph, and Manasseh and does not name Dan or Ephraim. The number and the tribal language are not replaced with an interpretation of which later community they represent.

7:9–14 — Hearing and seeing. John hears a numbered group and sees an innumerable crowd. Whether these portray the same people from different perspectives or distinct groups remains an interpretive question. “Great affliction” uses the same affliction word as chapters 1–2; it does not supply a duration or timetable.

7:14–17 — Blood, tent, and shepherd. Blood making robes white is the vision's deliberate paradox. “Spread his tent over them” preserves God's sheltering presence, and the Lamb himself becomes their shepherd. These images continue into the new Jerusalem in chapters 21–22.