1
After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”
2
At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it.
3
The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.
4
Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.
Worship of the Creator
5
From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven Spirits (a) of God.
6
And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back.
7
The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.
8
And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
9
And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne who lives forever and ever,
10
the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist and came to be.”
Footnotes