Knox Bible/The Book of Revelation

**The Book of Revelation**, as translated by Monsignor Ronald Knox in the Knox Bible Translation.

## INTRODUCTION

There is no introduction or foreword to The Book of Revelation in this particular translation of the Catholic Bible.

## CHAPTER 1

**1** This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God has allowed him to make known to his servants, of things which must soon find their due accomplishment. And he has sent his angel to disclose the pattern of it to his servant John,

**2** one who bore witness for God’s word, and for the truth concerning Jesus Christ, as his own eyes had seen it.

**3** A blessing on him who reads this, and on all who listen to these words of prophecy, and keep true to their message; the time is close at hand.

**4** Thus John writes to the seven churches in Asia, Grace and peace be yours, from him who is, and ever was, and is still to come, and from the seven spirits that stand before his throne;

**5** and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, first-born of the risen dead, who rules over all earthly kings. He has proved his love for us, by washing us clean from our sins in his own blood,

**6** and made us a royal race of priests, to serve God, his Father; glory and power be his through endless ages, Amen.

**7** Behold, he comes with clouds about him, seen by every eye, seen by those who wounded him,

and he shall bring lamentation to all the tribes of earth. So it must be, Amen.

**8** I am Alpha, I am Omega, the beginning of all things and their end, says the Lord God; he who is, and ever was, and is still to come, the Almighty.

**9** I, John, your brother, who share your ill-usage, your royal dignity, and your endurance in Christ Jesus, was set down on the island called Patmos, for love of God’s word and of the truth concerning Jesus.

**10** And there, on the Lord’s day, I fell into a trance, and heard behind me a voice, loud as the call of a trumpet,

**11** which said, Write down all thou seest in a book, and send it to the seven churches in Asia, to Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamum, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

**12** So I turned, to see what voice it was that was speaking to me. And as I turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks,

**13** and in the midst of these seven golden candlesticks one who seemed like a son of man, clothed in a long garment, with a golden girdle about his breast.

**14** The hair on his head was like wool snow-white, and his eyes like flaming fire,

**15** his feet like orichalc melted in the crucible, and his voice like the sound of water in deep flood.

**16** In his right hand were seven stars; from his mouth came a sword sharpened at both its edges; and his face was like the sun when it shines at its full strength.

**17** At the sight of him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man; and he, laying his right hand on me, spoke thus: Do not be afraid; I am before all, I am at the end of all,

**18** and I live. I, who underwent death, am alive, as thou seest, to endless ages, and I hold the keys of death and hell.

**19** Write down thy vision of what now is, and what must befall hereafter.

**20** As for the meaning of the seven stars which thou hast seen in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels

of the seven churches thou knowest, and the candlesticks, seven in number, are the seven churches.

## CHAPTER 2

**1** To the angel of the church at Ephesus write thus: A message to thee from him who bears the seven stars in his right hand, and walks amidst the seven golden candlesticks:

**2** I know of all thy doings, all thy toil and endurance; how little patience thou hast with wickedness, how thou hast made trial of such as usurp the name of apostle, and found them false.

**3** Yes, thou endurest, and all thou hast borne for the love of my name has not made thee despair.

**4** Yet there is one charge I make against thee; of losing the charity that was thine at first.

**5** Remember the height from which thou hast fallen, and repent, and go back to the old ways; or else I will come to visit thee, and, when I find thee still unrepentant, will remove thy candlestick from its place.

**6** Yet this is in thy favour, thou dost abhor the ways of the Nicolaitans, as I, too abhor them.

**7** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches. Who wins the victory? I will give him fruit from the tree of life, which grows in the Paradise of my God.

**8** And to the angel of the church at Smyrna write thus: A message to thee from him, who is before all and at the end of all, who underwent death and now is alive:

**9** I know how sorely tried thou art, how stricken with poverty (yet, all the while, so rich); how thy name is traduced by men who claim to be Jews (though they are no true Jews; they are rather the chosen people of Satan).

**10** Do not be afraid of the suffering thou art to undergo. Before long, the devil will throw some of you into prison, to have your faith tested there, and for ten days you shall be in sore distress. Keep faith with me to the point of death, and I will crown thee with life.

**11** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches. Who wins the victory? The second death shall have no power to hurt him.

**12** And to the angel of the church at Pergamum write thus: A message to thee from him whose sword is sharpened at both its edges:

**13** I know well in what a place thou dwellest, a place where Satan sits enthroned. And yet thou art true to my name, and hast not disowned thy faith in me. Such in former times was Antipas, who bore me faithful witness, and was put to death in Satan’s dwelling-place, your city.

**14** Yet here and there I have fault to find with thee; thou hast followers there of the school of Balaam. It was Balaam who taught Balac how to lay a trap for the people of Israel, when they ate what was sacrificed to idols and fell into fornication;

**15** and thou, too, hast followers of the Nicolaitan school.

**16** Do thou, in thy turn, repent; or I will quickly come to visit thee, and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

**17** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches. Who wins the victory? I will feed him with the hidden manna, and give him a white stone, on which stone a new name is written, known to him only who receives it.

**18** And to the angel of the church at Thyatira write thus: A message to thee from the Son of God, who has eyes like flaming fire, and feet like orichalc:

**19** I know of all thy doings, thy faith, thy love, thy generosity, thy endurance, how in these last days thou art more active than at first.

**20** Yet here and there I have fault to find with thee; thou allowest the woman Jezabel, who claims the gift of prophecy, to mislead my servants with her teaching, so that they fall into fornication, and eat what is offered to idols.

**21** AI have given her time for repentance, but she will not mend her harlot’s ways.

**22** I have a bed ready to lay her in; and those who commit adultery with her will be in sore straits, if they do not repent of their wrong-doing.

**23** And her children I will kill outright, so that all the churches may know me for one who probes the innermost heart, and will repay each of you what his deeds have earned. But I say to you,

**24** those others in Thyatira who do not follow this teaching, who have never learned the deep mysteries (as they are called) which Satan offers; I have no fresh burden to lay upon you;

**25** keep hold of what is in your grasp already, until I come.

**26** Who wins the victory? Who will do my bidding to the last? I will give him authority over the nations;

**27** to herd them like sheep with a crook of iron, breaking them in pieces like earthenware;

**28** the same authority which I myself hold from my Father. And the Star of morning shall be his.

**29** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches.

## CHAPTER 3

**1** And to the church’s angel at Sardis write thus: A message to thee from him who bears the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know of all thy doings, how thou dost pass for a living man, and all the while art a corpse.

**2** Rouse thyself, and rally whatever else still lives, but lives at the point of death. There are tasks my God expects of thee, and I find them unfulfilled.

**3** Remember how the gift, how the message came to thee; hold it fast, and repent. If thou failest in thy watch, I will come upon thee like a thief; thou shalt never know the hour of my coming to thee.

**4** Yet here and there in Sardis thou canst claim souls which have kept their garments undefiled, and these shall bear me company, clothed in white; it is their due.

**5** Who wins the victory? So shall he be clothed, in white garments; his name I will never blot out of the book of life, his name I will acknowledge before my Father and his angels.

**6** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches.

**7** And to the angel of the church at Philadelphia write thus: A message to thee from him, who is all holiness and truth; who bears the key of David, so that none may shut when he opens, none open when he shuts:

**8** I know of thy doings, and see, I have set before thee an open door, there is no shutting it. I know how little thy strength is, and yet thou hast been true to my message, and hast not denied my name.

**9** Before long, I will give thee for thy own some of Satan’s chosen people, the men who falsely claim to be Jews when they are none; before long, I will make them come to thee, doing reverence at thy feet, and acknowledging the love I have shewn for thee.

**10** Thou hast kept true to my lesson of endurance, and I will keep thee safe from the hour of trial which is soon to fall upon the whole world, for the testing of all who dwell on the earth.

**11** Patience, I am coming soon; hold what is in thy grasp, so that none may rob thee of thy crown.

**12** Who wins the victory? I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, never to leave it again. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city my God has built, that new Jerusalem which my God is even now sending down from heaven, and my own new name.

**13** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches.

**14** And to the angel of the church at Laodicea write thus: A message to thee from the Truth, the faithful and unerring witness, the source from which God’s creation began:

**15** I know of thy doings, and find thee neither cold nor hot; cold or hot, I would thou wert one or the other.

**16** Being what thou art, lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, thou wilt make me vomit thee out of my mouth.

**17** I am rich, thou sayest, I have come into my own; nothing, now, is wanting to me. And all the while, if thou didst but know it, it is thou who art wretched, thou who art to be pitied. Thou art a beggar, blind and naked;

**18** and my counsel to thee is, to come and buy from me what thou needest; gold, proved in the fire, to make thee rich, and white garments, to clothe thee, and cover up the nakedness which dishonours thee; rub salve, too, upon thy eyes, to restore them sight.

**19** It is those I love that I correct and chasten; kindle thy generosity, and repent.

**20** See where I stand at the door, knocking; if anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to visit him, and take my supper with him, and he shall sup with me.

**21** Who wins the victory? I will let him share my throne with me; I too have won the victory, and now I sit sharing my Father’s throne.

**22** Listen, you that have ears, to the message the Spirit has for the churches.

## CHAPTER 4

**1** Then a vision came to me; I saw a door in heaven, standing open. And the same voice, which I had heard speaking to me before, loud as the call of a trumpet, said to me, Come up to my side, and I will shew thee what must find, after this, its due accomplishment.

**2** And all at once I was in a trance, and saw where a throne stood in heaven, and one sat there enthroned.

**3** He who sat there bore the semblance of a jewel, jasper or sardius, and there was a rainbow about the throne, like a vision of emerald.

**4** Round it were twenty-four seats, and on these sat twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads.

**5** Lightnings came out from the throne, and mutterings, and thunders, and before it burned seven lamps, which are the seven spirits of God;

**6** facing it was a whole sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst, where the throne was, round the throne itself, were four living figures, that had eyes everywhere to see before them and behind them.

**7** The first figure was that of a lion, the second that of an ox, the third had a man’s look, and the fourth was that of an eagle in flight.

**8** Each of the four figures had six wings, with eyes everywhere looking outwards and inwards; day and night they cried unceasingly, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who ever was, and is, and is still to come.

**9** And as often as these figures gave glory and honour and blessing to him who sat on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,

**10** the twenty-four elders fell down in worship before him who sat on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, and threw down their crowns before the throne, crying out,

**11** Thou, our Lord God, claimest as thy due glory and honour and power; by thee all things were created; nothing ever was, nothing was ever created, but in obedience to thy will.

## CHAPTER 5

**1** And now I saw that he who sat on the throne carried in his right hand a scroll. The inside of the page and the outside were both written on, and it was sealed with seven seals.

**2** And I saw an angel of sovereign strength, who was crying in a loud voice, Who claims the right to open the book, and break the seals on it?

**3** But there was no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, who could open the scroll and have sight of it.

**4** I was all in tears, that none should be found worthy to open the scroll or have sight of it;

**5** until one of the elders said to me, No need for tears; here is one who has gained the right to open the book, by breaking its seven seals, the Lion that comes from the tribe of Juda, from the stock of David.

**6** Then I saw, in the midst, where the throne was, amid the four figures and the elders, a Lamb standing upright, yet slain (as I thought) in sacrifice. He had seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, that go out to do his bidding everywhere on earth.

**7** He now came, and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne,

**8** and when he disclosed it,

the four living figures and the twenty-four elders fell down in the Lamb’s presence. Each bore a harp, and they had golden bowls full of incense, the prayers of the saints.

**9** And now it was a new hymn they sang, Thou, Lord, art worthy to take up the book and break the seals that are on it. Thou wast slain in sacrifice; out of every tribe, every language, every people, every nation thou hast ransomed us with thy blood and given us to God.

**10** Thou hast made us a royal race of priests, to serve God; we shall reign as kings over the earth.

**11** Then I heard, in my vision, the voices of a multitude of angels, standing on every side of the throne, where the living figures and the elders were, in thousands of thousands,

**12** and crying aloud, Power and Godhead, wisdom and strength, honour and glory and blessing are his by right, the Lamb that was slain.

**13** And every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all that is in it,

I heard crying out together, Blessing and honour and glory and power, through endless ages, to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.

**14** Then the four living figures said, Amen; and the twenty-four elders fell prostrate, worshipping him who lives for ever and ever.

## CHAPTER 6

**1** Then, in my vision, the Lamb broke open one of the seven seals, and with that I heard one of the four living figures say, in a voice like thunder, Come and look.

**2** So I looked, and saw there a white horse, whose rider carried a bow; a crown was given him, and he rode out victorious, and to win victory.

**3** And when he broke the second seal, I heard the second figure say, Come and look;

**4** and a second horse came out, fiery-red, whose rider was empowered to take away all peace from the world, bidding men slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

**5** And when he broke the third seal, I heard the third figure say, Come and look; so I looked, and saw there a black horse, whose rider carried in his hand a pair of scales;

**6** I thought, too, I heard a voice that came from where the living figures were. A silver piece, it said, for a quart of wheat, a silver piece for three quarts of barley; but do the wine and the oil no hurt.

**7** And when he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living figure say, Come and look.

**8** So I looked, and saw there a cream-white horse; its rider was called Death, and Hell went at his bridle-rein; he was allowed to have his way with all the four quarters of the world, killing men by the sword, by famine, by plague, and through wild beasts that roam the earth.

**9** And when he broke the fifth seal, I saw there, beneath the altar, the souls of all who had been slain for love of God’s word and of the truth they held,

**10** crying out with a loud voice, Sovereign Lord, the holy, the true, how long now before thou wilt sit in judgement, and exact vengeance for our blood from all those who dwell on earth?

**11** Whereupon a white robe was given to each of them, and they were bidden to take their rest a little while longer, until their number had been made up by those others, their brethren and fellow servants, who were to die as they had died.

**12** Then, in my vision, he broke the sixth seal; and with that there was a great earthquake, and the sun grew dark as sackcloth, and the whole moon blood-red;

**13** the stars of heaven fell to earth, like unripe fruit shaken from a fig-tree, when a high wind rocks it;

**14** the sky folded up like a scroll, and disappeared; no mountain, no island, but was removed from its place.

**15** The kings of the world with their noblemen and their captains, men of wealth and of strength, all alike, slaves and free men, took shelter in caves and rock-fastnesses among the hills.

**16** Fall on us, they said to the hills and the rocks, and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne, and from the vengeance of the Lamb.

**17** Which of us can stand his ground, now that the great day, the day of their vengeance, has come?

## CHAPTER 7

**1** And now I saw four angels, standing at the world’s four corners, and holding back the four winds of the world, so that no wind should blow on land or sea, or upon any of the trees.

**2** And I saw a second angel coming up from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels who were empowered to lay waste land and sea;

**3** Do not lay waste land or sea or wood, until we have put a seal on the foreheads of those who serve our God.

**4** Then I heard the count of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand of them, taken from every tribe of the sons of Israel.

**5** Twelve thousand were sealed from the tribe of Juda, twelve thousand from the tribe of Ruben, twelve thousand from the tribe of Gad;

**6** twelve thousand from the tribe of Nephthali, twelve thousand from the tribe of Aser, twelve thousand from the tribe of Manasses;

**7** twelve thousand from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand from the tribe of Issachar;

**8** twelve thousand from the tribe of Zabulon, twelve thousand from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand from the tribe of Benjamin.

**9** And then I saw a great multitude, past all counting, taken from all nations and tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne in the Lamb’s presence, clothed in white robes, with palm-branches in their hands,

**10** and cried with a loud voice, To our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, all saving power belongs.

**11** And all the angels that were standing round the throne, round the elders and the living figures, fell prostrate before the throne and paid God worship;

**12** Amen, they cried, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength belong to our God through endless ages, Amen.

**13** And now one of the elders turned to me, and asked, Who are they, and whence do they come, these who are robed in white?

**14** My Lord, said I, thou canst tell me. These, he said, have come here out of the great affliction; they have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

**15** And now they stand before God’s throne, serving him day and night in his temple; the presence of him who sits on the throne shall overshadow them.

**16** They will not be hungry or thirsty any more; no sun, no noonday heat, shall fall across their path.

**17** The Lamb, who dwells where the throne is, will be their shepherd, leading them out to the springs whose water is life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

## CHAPTER 8

**1** Then he broke open the seventh seal; and, for about half an hour, there was silence in heaven.

**2** And now I saw seven trumpets given to the seven angels who stand in God’s presence.

**3** There was another angel that came and took his stand at the altar, with a censer of gold; and incense was given him in plenty, so that he could make an offering on the golden altar before the throne, out of the prayers said by all the saints.

**4** So, from the angel’s hand, the smoke of the incense went up in God’s presence, kindled by the saints’ prayer.

**5** Then the angel took his censer, filled it up with fire-brands from the altar, and threw it down on to the earth; thunder followed, and mutterings, and lightning, and a great earthquake.

**6** And now the seven angels with the seven trumpets made ready to sound them.

**7** When the first sounded, there was a storm of hail and fire, mingled with blood, that fell on the earth, burning up a third part of earth, burning up a third of the trees, burning up all the green grass on it.

**8** And when the second angel sounded, it was as if a great mountain, all in flames, fell into the sea, turning a third part of the sea into blood,

**9** and killing a third of all the creatures that live in the sea, and wrecking a third of the ships.

**10** And when the third angel sounded, a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, fell upon a third part of the rivers, and on the springs of water.

**11** The name of this star is Wormwood; and it changed a third of the water into wormwood, till many died of drinking the water, so bitter had it become.

**12** And when the fourth angel sounded, a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were smitten with darkness, so that the day must go without light for a third of its length, and the night too.

**13** And I heard, in my vision, words spoken by an eagle that flew across the middle part of heaven, crying aloud, Woe, woe, woe to all that dwell on earth, when those other calls are sounded by the three angels whose trumpets have yet to sound.

## CHAPTER 9

**1** And when the fifth angel sounded, I saw where a star had fallen from heaven to earth. This star was entrusted with the key of that shaft which leads to the abyss.

**2** So it opened the shaft which leads to the abyss, and smoke rose from the shaft as smoke rises from a great furnace, till the smoke rising from the shaft darkened both the sun and the air.

**3** And out of the smoke a swarm of locusts spread over the world, endowed with such power for mischief as scorpions have on earth;

**4** they were not to injure the grass on the land, the green things that grew there, or the trees; they were to attack men, such men as did not bear God’s mark on their foreheads.

**5** These they had no power to kill, only to inflict pain on them during a space of five months; such pain as a man feels when he has been stung by a scorpion.

**6** (When those days come, men will be looking for the means of death, and there will be no finding it; longing to die, and death will always give them the slip.)

**7** The semblance of these locusts was that of horses caparisoned for war; on their heads they wore a kind of circlet that shone like gold, and their faces were like human faces;

**8** they had hair like women’s hair, and teeth like lions’ teeth.

**9** They wore breastplates that might have been of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of chariots, drawn at full speed by many horses into battle.

**10** It was their tails and the stings in their tails that made them like scorpions, and with these they were empowered to do men hurt for a space of five months. And they fought under a king;

**11** their king was the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, that is, in Latin, the Exterminator.

**12** Of the three woes that were pronounced, one is now past; the two others are still to come.

**13** And when the sixth angel sounded, I heard a voice that came from the four corners of the golden altar which stands in the presence of God.

**14** It said to the sixth angel, as he stood there with his trumpet, Release the four angels who are imprisoned by the great river, the river Euphrates.

**15** So these were released, four angels who were waiting for the year, the month, the day, the hour, when they were to destroy a third part of mankind.

**16** And the muster of the armies that followed them on horseback (for I heard their muster called) was twenty thousand armies of ten thousand.

**17** This is what I saw in my vision of the horses and of their riders; the riders had breastplates of fiery red, and blue, and brimstone yellow, and the horses’ heads seemed like the heads of lions, with fire and smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths.

**18** This fire, this smoke, this brimstone that came out of their mouths were three plagues, from which a third part of mankind perished.

**19** The power these horses have to do mischief lies in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, with serpents’ heads, and they use them to do hurt.

**20** The rest of mankind, that did not perish by these plagues, would not turn away from the things their own hands had fashioned; still worshipped evil spirits, false gods of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, that can neither see, nor hear, nor move.

**21** Nor would they repent of the murders, the sorceries, the fornications, and the thefts which they committed.

## CHAPTER 10

**1** And now I saw a second angel of sovereign strength coming down from heaven, with a cloud for his vesture, and a rainbow about his head; with a face bright as the sun, and legs like pillars of fire.

**2** He carried in his hand an open book. Setting his right foot on the sea, and his left on the dry land,

**3** he cried with a loud voice, like the roaring of a lion; and as he cried, the seven thunders of heaven made their voices heard.

**4** And I, when the seven thunders had finished their utterance, was making as if to write it down, when I heard a voice say from heaven, Do not write down the message of the seven thunders, keep it sealed.

**5** Then that angel, whom I had already seen with his feet on the sea and on the dry land, lifted up his right hand towards heaven,

**6** and swore an oath by him who lives through endless ages, who made heaven and all that is in heaven, earth and all that is on earth, the sea and all that is in the sea. He swore that there should be no more waiting;

**7** when the time came for the seventh angel to make himself heard, as he stood ready to sound his trumpet, God’s secret design, made known by his servants the prophets, would be accomplished.

**8** Then once more I heard the voice speaking to me from heaven, thus: Go and take the open book from the hand of that angel, whose feet are on the sea and on the dry land.

**9** So I went to the angel, bidding him give me the book. Take it, he said, and eat it; it will turn thy belly sour, though in thy mouth it be as sweet as honey.

**10** So I took the book from the angel’s hand and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but my belly turned sour once I had eaten it.

**11** Then he said to me, Thou art to make a fresh prophecy, which concerns many peoples, many races, many languages, and many kings.

## CHAPTER 11

**1** Then I was given a reed, shaped like a wand, and word came to me, Up, and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and reckon up those who worship in it.

**2** But leave out of thy reckoning the court which is outside the temple; do not measure that, because it has been made over to the Gentiles, who will tread the holy city under foot for the space of forty-two months.

**3** Meanwhile I will give the power of prophecy to my two witnesses; for twelve hundred and sixty days they shall prophesy, dressed in sackcloth;

**4** these are the two olive-trees, the two candlesticks thou knowest of, that stand before him who is Lord of the earth.

**5** Does anyone try to hurt them? Fire will come out from their mouths and devour such enemies of theirs; that will be the end of all who try to do them hurt.

**6** These two have it in their power to shut the doors of heaven, and let no rain fall during the days of their ministry; they can turn the waters into blood, and smite the earth with any other plague, whenever they will.

**7** Then, when they have borne me witness to the full, the beast which comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, and defeat and kill them.

**8** Their bodies will lie in the open street, in that great city which is called Sodom or Egypt in the language of prophecy; there, too, their Lord was crucified.

**9** For three days and a half, men of every tribe and people and language and race will gaze at their bodies, those bodies to which they refuse burial;

**10** and all who dwell on earth will triumph over them, and take their ease, and send presents to one another; such a torment were these two prophets to all that dwell on the earth.

**11** Then, after three and a half days, by God’s gift the breath of life entered into them, and they rose to their feet, while great dread fell on all who watched them.

**12** Then they heard a loud voice from heaven, Come up to my side; and, while their enemies watched them, they went up, amid the clouds, to heaven.

**13** At that hour there was a great earthquake, which overthrew a tenth of the city; the count of those who were killed by the earthquake was seven thousand, and the rest were filled with dread, and acknowledged the glory of God in heaven.

**14** So the second of the three woes that were pronounced is past, and the third will come speedily.

**15** Then the seventh angel sounded, and with that, a great cry was raised in heaven, The dominion of the world has passed to the Lord of us all, and to Christ his anointed; he shall reign for ever and ever, Amen.

**16** And the twenty-four elders who sit enthroned in God’s presence fell prostrate, worshipping God and crying out,

**17** Lord God Almighty, who art, and ever wast, and art still to come, we give thee thanks for assuming that high sovereignty which belongs to thee, and beginning thy reign.

**18** The heathen have vented their rage upon us, but now the day of thy retribution has come; the time when thou wilt judge the dead, rewarding thy servants, prophets and holy men and all who fear thy name, little or great, and destroying the corrupters of the world.

**19** After this, God’s heavenly temple was thrown open, and the ark of the covenant was plain to view, standing in his temple; and there were lightnings, and mutterings, and an earthquake, and a great storm of hail.

## CHAPTER 12

**1** And now, in heaven, a great portent appeared; a woman that wore the sun for her mantle, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars about her head.

**2** She had a child in her womb, and was crying out as she travailed, in great pain of her delivery.

**3** Then a second portent appeared in heaven; a great dragon was there, fiery-red, with seven heads and ten horns, and on each of the seven heads a royal diadem;

**4** his tail dragged down a third part of the stars in heaven, and flung them to earth. And he stood fronting the woman who was in childbirth, ready to swallow up the child as soon as she bore it.

**5** She bore a son, the son who is to herd the nations like sheep with a crook of iron; and this child of hers was caught up to God, right up to his throne,

**6** while the mother fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place of refuge for her, and there, for twelve hundred and sixty days, she is to be kept safe.

**7** Fierce war broke out in heaven, where Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought on their part,

**8** but could not win the day, or stand their ground in heaven any longer;

**9** the great dragon, serpent of the primal age, was flung down to earth; he whom we call the devil, or Satan, the whole world’s seducer, flung down to earth, and his angels with him.

**10** Then I heard a voice crying aloud in heaven, The time has come; now we are saved and made strong, our God reigns, and power belongs to Christ, his anointed; the accuser of our brethren is overthrown. Day and night he stood accusing them in God’s presence;

**11** but because of the Lamb’s blood and because of the truth to which they bore witness, they triumphed over him, holding their lives cheap till death overtook them.

**12** Rejoice over it, heaven, and all you that dwell in heaven; but woe to you, earth and sea, now that the devil has come down upon you, full of malice, because he knows how brief is the time given him.

**13** So the dragon, finding himself cast down to earth, went in pursuit of the woman, the boy’s mother;

**14** but the woman was given two wings, such as the great eagle has, to speed her flight into the wilderness, to her place of refuge, where for a year, and two years, and half a year she will be kept hidden from the serpent’s view.

**15** Thereupon the serpent sent a flood of water out of his mouth in pursuit of the woman, to carry her away on its tide;

**16** but earth came to the woman’s rescue. The earth gaped wide, and swallowed up this flood which the dragon had sent out of his mouth.

**17** So, in his spite against the woman, the dragon went elsewhere to make war on the rest of her children, the men who keep God’s commandments, and hold fast to the truth concerning Jesus.

**18** And he stood there waiting on the sea beach.

## CHAPTER 13

**1** And out of the sea, in my vision, a beast came up to land, with ten horns and seven heads, and on each of its ten horns a royal diadem; and the names it bore on its heads were names of blasphemy.

**2** This beast which I saw was like a leopard, but it had bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth. To it the dragon gave the strength that was his, and great dominion.

**3** One of its heads, it seemed, had been mortally wounded, but this deadly wound had been healed. And now the whole world went after the beast in admiration,

**4** falling down and praising the dragon for giving the beast all this dominion; praising the beast too. Who is a match for the beast? they asked; Who is fit to make war upon him?

**5** And he was given power of speech, to boast and to blaspheme with, and freedom to work his will for a space of forty-two months.

**6** So he began to utter blasphemy against God, blasphemy against his name, against his dwelling-place and all those who dwell in heaven.

**7** He was allowed, too, to levy war on the saints, and to triumph over them. The dominion given to him extended over all tribes and peoples and languages and races;

**8** all the dwellers on earth fell down in adoration of him, except those whose names the Lamb has written down in his book of life, the Lamb slain in sacrifice ever since the world was made.

**9** Listen to this, you that have ears to hear with.

**10** The captor will go into captivity; he who slays with the sword must himself be slain with the sword. Such good ground have the saints for their endurance, and for their faithfulness.

**11** Then, from the land itself, I saw another beast come up; it had two horns like a lamb’s horns, but it roared like a dragon.

**12** And it stood in the presence of the former beast, to carry out all that it was empowered to do, bidding the world and all its inhabitants worship the former beast, that beast whose deadly wound was healed.

**13** Such wonders could it accomplish, that it brought down fire, before men’s eyes, from heaven to earth;

**14** and by these wonders, which it was enabled to do in its master’s presence, it deluded the inhabitants of the world, bidding those who dwell in it set up an image to that beast which was smitten with the sword, and lived.

**15** Further, it was able to put life into that beast’s image, so that even the beast’s image uttered speech; and if anyone refused to worship the image of the beast, it had him put to death.

**16** All alike, little and great, rich and poor, free men and slaves, must receive a mark from him on their right hands, or on their foreheads,

**17** and none might buy or sell, unless he carried this mark, which was the beast’s name, or the number that stands for his name.

**18** Here is room for discernment; let the reader, if he has the skill, cast up the sum of the figures in the beast’s name, after our human fashion, and the number will be six hundred and sixty-six.

## CHAPTER 14

**1** Then I looked, and saw where the Lamb stood on mount Sion, amidst a company of a hundred and forty-four thousand, with his name, and his Father’s name, written on their foreheads.

**2** And I heard a sound from heaven, louder than water in full flood, or heavy thunder. This sound which I heard seemed to come from harpers, playing on their harps,

**3** as they sang a new song, there before the throne, and the living figures, and the elders. It was a song none else might learn to sing but the hundred and forty-four thousand that were ransomed from the earth.

**4** These have kept their virginity undefiled by the touch of woman; these are the Lamb’s attendants, wherever he goes; these have been ransomed for God and the Lamb as the first-fruits of mankind.

**5** Falsehood was not found on their lips; they stand there untainted before the throne of God.

**6** I saw, too, another angel flying in mid-heaven, carrying with him a final gospel to preach to all those who dwell on the earth, to every race and tribe and language and people.

**7** Fear the Lord, he cried aloud, and give him the praise; the hour of his judgement has come. Fall down before him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the springs of water.

**8** Fear the Lord, he cried aloud, and give him the praise; the hour of his judgement has come. Fall down before him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the springs of water.

**9** And these were followed by a third angel, who cried aloud, Whoever worships the beast and his image, or wears the beast’s mark on forehead or hand,

**10** he too shall drink; but the wine he shall drink is God’s anger, untempered wine poured out in the cup of his vengeance. Fire and brimstone shall be his torment, in the presence of the holy angels, in the presence of the Lamb.

**11** The smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; day and night no rest is theirs, who worshipped the beast and his image, who bore the mark of his name.

**12** This is the test which the saints endure, keeping true to God’s commandment, and the faith of Jesus.

**13** I heard a voice, too, from heaven, Write thus: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Yes, for ever henceforward, the Spirit says; they are to have rest from their labours; but the deeds they did in life go with them now.

**14** Then, in my vision, a white cloud appeared; and on this cloud sat one who seemed like a son of man, with a crown of gold on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

**15** And now, from the temple, came another angel, crying out to him who sat on the cloud, Put in thy sickle, and reap; the crop of earth is dry, and the time has come to reap it.

**16** So he who sat on the cloud put in his sickle, and earth’s harvest was reaped.

**17** Then another angel came from the heavenly temple; he too had a sharp sickle.

**18** And from the altar came another angel, the same that had power over the fire on it,

and cried aloud to the angel with the sharp sickle, Put in thy sharp sickle, and gather the grapes from earth’s vineyard; its clusters are ripe.

**19** So the angel put in his sickle over the earth, and gathered in earth’s vintage, which he threw into the great wine-press of God’s anger;

**20** and when the wine-press was trodden out, away from the city, blood came from the wine-press, and reached as high as a horse’s bridle, sixteen hundred furlongs off.

## CHAPTER 15

**1** This was another great portent I saw in heaven, and a strange one; seven angels, the bearers of seven plagues, those last plagues by which the vengeance of God is finally achieved.

**2** I saw, too, what might have been a sea of glass, tinged with fire. And by this sea of glass the victors were standing, safe now from the beast, and his image, and the mark of his name, with harps of God’s fashioning.

**3** Theirs is the song of God’s servant Moses, theirs is the song of the Lamb. Lord God almighty, they cry, the deeds thou doest are great and wonderful; King of all the ages, thy ways are just and true.

**4** Lord, who alone art holy, who shall refuse reverence and glory to thy name? All the nations shall come and fall down before thee, now that thy just retribution has been made known.

**5** Then, as I looked, the tabernacle that bears record in heaven opened its inner shrine,

**6** and the seven angels who bear the seven plagues came out of the shrine, clad in pure white linen, with golden girdles at their breasts.

**7** And one of the four living figures gave to these seven angels seven golden cups, filled with the vengeance of God, who lives for ever and ever.

**8** Meanwhile, God’s majesty and power filled the whole shrine with smoke, so that none could enter the shrine until the plagues borne by the seven angels had run their course.

## CHAPTER 16

**1** Then I heard a loud voice coming from the shrine, that said to the seven angels, Go and pour out the seven cups of God’s vengeance on the earth.

**2** The first angel went on his errand, pouring out his cup on to the earth; whereupon an ulcer broke out, malignant and troublesome, upon all the men who bore the beast’s mark, and worshipped his image.

**3** And the second angel poured out his cup over the sea, where it turned into blood, as if murder had been done there till every living creature in the sea was dead.

**4** And the third poured out his cup over the rivers and the springs of water, where it turned into blood.

**5** Then I heard the angel of the waters cry out, Holy thou art, O Lord, and wast ever holy, and this is a just award of thine,

**6** blood to drink for those who have shed the blood of thy saints and prophets; it is their due.

**7** I heard another, too, saying from the altar, Yes, the judgements thou dost pronounce, Lord God almighty, are true and just.

**8** The fourth angel poured out his cup over the sun, which thereupon was given power to afflict mankind with burning heat;

**9** and in the great heat which burned them, men blasphemed the name of God, who disposes of these plagues, instead of repenting, and giving praise to him.

**10** And the fifth angel poured out his cup where the beast’s throne was; and with that, all the beast’s kingdom was turned into darkness, in which men sat biting their tongues for pain,

**11** finding cause to blaspheme the God of heaven in their pains and their ulcers, instead of finding cause for repentance in their ill deeds.

**12** And the sixth angel poured out his cup over the great river Euphrates, whose waters dried up, to make a passage for the kings that march from the East.

**13** Then, in my vision, three unclean spirits appeared in the form of frogs; one from the mouth of the dragon, one from the mouth of the beast, and one from the mouth of his false prophet.

**14** These are devilish spirits that can do miracles, and find access to all the kings of the world, bidding them meet in battle when the great day comes, the day of almighty God.

**15** (Behold, I come as the thief comes; blessed is he that keeps watch, and is ready clad, so that he has no need to go naked, and be ashamed in men’s sight.)

**16** The place where they are bidden to meet is the place called in Hebrew, Armagedon.

**17** And the seventh angel poured out his cup over the air. Then a loud voice came out of the shrine, a voice which cried from the throne, It is over;

**18** and there were lightnings and mutterings and thunder, and a violent earthquake; since man came into the world there was never an earthquake so great and so violent as this.

**19** The great city broke in three pieces, while the cities of the heathen came down in ruins. And God did not forget to minister a draught of his wine, his avenging anger, to Babylon, the great city.

**20** Gone were all the islands, and the mountains were no more to be seen.

**21** And hailstones as big as a talent-weight fell upon mankind out of heaven, till men cursed God for his plague of hail, so great it was, and so grievous.

## CHAPTER 17

**1** And now one of the angels that bear the seven cups came and spoke to me. Come with me, he said, and I will shew thee how judgement is pronounced on the great harlot, that sits by the meeting-place of many rivers.

**2** The kings of the world have committed fornication with her; all the dwellers on earth have been drunk with the wine of her dalliance.

**3** Then, in a trance, he carried me off into the wilderness, where I saw a woman riding on a scarlet beast, scrawled over with names of blasphemy; it had seven heads, and ten horns.

**4** The woman went clad in purple and scarlet, all hung about with gold and jewels and pearls, and held a golden cup in her hand, full to the brim with those abominations of hers, with the lewdness of her harlot’s ways.

**5** There was a title written over her forehead, The mystic Babylon, great mother-city of all harlots, and all that is abominable on earth.

**6** I saw this woman drunk with the blood of saints, the blood of those who bore witness to Jesus; and I was filled with great wonder at the sight.

**7** But the angel said to me, Why dost thou find cause for wonder? I will disclose to thee the mystery of this woman, and of the beast she rides, with its seven heads and ten horns.

**8** The beast thou sawest is that which lived once, and now is dead; soon it must rise from the abyss, and find its way to utter destruction. The sight of this beast which lived once, and now is dead, will strike awe into every dweller on earth, except those whose names have been written, before the world was, in the book of life.

**9** Here is need for a discerning mind. These seven heads are seven hills; upon these the woman sits enthroned. They are also seven kings;

**10** of these, five have fallen already, one is reigning now; the last has not come yet, but when he does, his reign will be a short one.

**11** And the beast which lived once and now is dead must be reckoned as the eighth, yet it is one of the seven; now it is to find its way to utter destruction.

**12** And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have not yet received their royal title, but are to enjoy such power as kings have, for one hour, in succession to the beast.

**13** All of them have a single policy; they surrender to the beast the power and the dominion which is theirs.

**14** And they will fight against the Lamb, but the Lamb will have the mastery of them; he is Lord of all lords, King of all kings; whoever is called, is chosen, is faithful, will take his part.

**15** Then he told me, These waters in thy vision, at whose meeting the harlot sits enthroned, are all her peoples, nations, and languages.

**16** And the ten horns, which the beast had in thy vision, will become the harlot’s enemies; they will lay her waste, and strip her quite bare, eat her flesh away, and then burn down what is left of her.

**17** God has put it into their hearts to carry out his design, and to give their dominion over to the beast, so that at last all the words of God may be fulfilled.

**18** And as for the woman of thy vision, she is that great city that bears rule over the rulers of the earth.

## CHAPTER 18

**1** After this I saw another angel, entrusted with great power, come down from heaven; earth shone with the glory of his presence.

**2** And he cried aloud, Babylon, great Babylon is fallen; she has become the abode of devils, the stronghold of all unclean spirits, the eyrie of all birds that are unclean and hateful to man.

**3** The whole world has drunk the maddening wine of her fornication; the kings of the earth have lived in dalliance with her, and its merchants have grown rich through her reckless pleasures.

**4** And now I heard another voice from heaven say, Come out of her, my people, that you may not be involved in her guilt, nor share the plagues that fall upon her.

**5** Her guilt mounts up to heaven; the Lord has kept her sins in remembrance.

**6** Deal with her as she has dealt with you; repay her twice over for all she has done amiss; brew double measure for her in the cup she has brewed for others;

**7** requite her with anguish and sorrow for all her pride and luxury. She tells herself, Here I sit enthroned like a queen; widowhood is not for me, I shall never know what it is to mourn;

**8** and all her plagues shall come upon her in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned to the ground; such power has the God who is her judge.

**9** How they will weep over her and beat their breasts, those kings of the earth who once lived in dalliance and took their pleasures with her, as they see the smoke rise where she burns!

**10** Standing at a distance, for fear of sharing her punishment, they will cry out, Alas, Babylon the great, alas, Babylon the strong, in one brief hour judgement has come upon thee!

**11** And all the merchants of the world will weep and mourn over her; who will buy their merchandise now?

**12** Their cargoes of gold and silver, of precious stone and pearl, of lawn and purple, of silk and scarlet; all the citrus wood, the work in ivory and precious stone and brass and iron and marble;

**13** cinnamon and balm, perfume and myrrh and incense, wine and oil and wheat and fine flour, cattle and sheep and horses and chariots, and men’s bodies, and men’s souls.

**14** It is gone from thee, the harvest thy soul longed for; all that gaiety and glory is lost to thee, and shall never be seen any more.

**15** The merchants that grew rich from such traffic will stand at a distance from her, for fear of sharing her punishment, weeping and mourning;

**16** Alas, they will say, alas for the great city, that went clad in lawn and purple and scarlet, all hung about with gold and jewels and pearls;

**17** in one brief hour all that wealth has vanished. The sea-captains, too, and all that sail between ports, the mariners and all who make their living from the sea, stood at a distance,

**18** crying out, as they saw the smoke rise where she was burning, What city can compare with this great city?

**19** They poured dust on their heads, and cried aloud, weeping and mourning, Alas, alas for the great city, whose magnificence brought wealth to all that had ships at sea; in one brief hour she is laid waste.

**20** Triumph, heaven, over her fall, triumph, you saints in heaven, apostles and prophets; God has avenged you on her.

**21** And now an angel, of sovereign strength, lifted up a stone like a great mill-stone and cast it into the sea, crying out, So, with one crash of ruin, will Babylon fall, the great city, and there will be no trace of her any more.

**22** Never again will men listen there to the music of harper and of minstrel, of flute-player and trumpeter; never again will the craftsmen of all those crafts be found in thee, never again the grinding of a mill heard in thee;

**23** never again the light of lamps shining, never again the voice of bridegroom and of bride. Once the great men of the earth were thy purveyors; once thy sorceries bewitched the world.

**24** The blood of prophet and saint lay at her doors; the blood of all that were ever slain on the earth.

## CHAPTER 19

**1** After this I heard, as it seemed, the voices of countless multitudes crying out in heaven, Alleluia; salvation and glory and power belong to our God;

**2** his sentence is ever true and just, and now he has given sentence against the great harlot, who poisoned the earth with her harlot’s ways; now he has called her to account for the blood of his servants.

**3** And again they cried, Alleluia, the smoke of her burning goes up everlastingly.

**4** Then the twenty-four elders and the four living figures fell down and worshipped God, where he sits enthroned, crying, Amen, Alleluia.

**5** And a voice came from the throne, which said, Praise our God, all you that are his servants, and all you that fear him, little and great alike;

**6** whereupon I heard, as it seemed, the noise of a great multitude, like the noise of water in flood, or the noise of deep thunder, as they cried out, Alleluia, the Lord our God, the Almighty, has claimed his kingdom;

**7** let us rejoice and triumph and give him the praise; the time has come for the wedding-feast of the Lamb. His bride has clothed herself in readiness for it;

**8** hers it is to wear linen of shining white; the merits of the saints are her linen.

**9** And now the angel said to me, Write thus: Blessed are those who are bidden to the Lamb’s wedding-feast. All this is true, he said; it is God’s own utterance.

**10** Thereupon I fell at his feet, to worship him. But he said, Never that; keep thy worship for God; I am only thy fellow servant, one of those brethren of thine who hold fast the truth concerning Jesus. It is the truth concerning Jesus that inspires all prophecy.

**11** Then, in my vision, heaven opened, and I saw a white horse appear. Its rider bore for his title, the Faithful, the True; he judges and goes to battle in the cause of right.

**12** His eyes were like flaming fire, and on his brow were many royal diadems; the name written there is one that only he knows.

**13** He went clad in a garment deep dyed with blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God;

**14** the armies of heaven followed him, mounted on white horses, and clad in linen, white and clean.

**15** From his mouth came a two-edged sword, ready to smite the nations; he will herd them like sheep with a crook of iron. He treads out for them the wine-press, whose wine is the avenging anger of almighty God.

**16** And this title is written on his cloak, over his thigh, The King of kings, and the Lord of lords.

**17** And I saw an angel standing in the sun’s orb, who cried aloud to all the birds that hovered in mid-air, Come and gather at God’s great feast,

**18** where you shall eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of the strong, the flesh of horses and their riders, the flesh of all mankind, free men and slaves, the little and the great.

**19** And then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth muster their armies, to join battle with the rider on the white horse and the army which followed him.

**20** The beast was made prisoner, and with it the false prophet that did miracles in its presence, deluding all those who bore the beast’s mark and worshipped its image; and both were thrown alive into the fiery lake that burns with brimstone.

**21** All the rest were slain by the sword of that horseman, the sword that comes from his mouth; and all the birds feasted on the carrion, and had their fill.

## CHAPTER 20

**1** I saw, too, an angel come down from heaven, with the key of the abyss in his hand, and a great chain.

**2** He made prisoner of the dragon, serpent of the primal age, whom we call the devil, or Satan, and put him in bonds for a thousand years,

**3** thrusting him down to the abyss and locking him in there, and setting a seal over him. He was not to delude the world any more until the thousand years were over; then, for a short time, he is to be released.

**4** Then I saw thrones prepared for those to whom judgement was committed; I saw the souls of all those who went to execution for love of the truth concerning Jesus, and of God’s word, and all who would not worship the beast, or its image, or bear its mark on their foreheads and their hands. These were endowed with life, and reigned as kings with Christ for a thousand years;

**5** but the rest of the dead remained lifeless while the thousand years lasted. Such is the first resurrection.

**6** Blessed and holy is his lot who has a share in this first resurrection; over such the second death has no power, they will be priests of God, priests of Christ; all those thousand years they will reign with him.

**7** Then, when the thousand years are over, Satan will be let loose from his prison, and will go out to seduce the nations that live at the four corners of the earth—that is the meaning of Gog and Magog—and muster them for battle, countless as the sand by the sea.

**8** They came up across the whole breadth of the earth, and beleaguered the encampment of the saints, and the beloved city.

**9** But God sent fire from heaven to consume them, and the devil, their seducer, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where, like himself, the beast

**10** and the false prophet will be tormented day and night eternally.

**11** And now I saw a great throne, all white, and one sitting on it, at whose glance earth and heaven vanished, and were found no more.

**12** Before this throne, in my vision, the dead must come, great and little alike; and the books were opened. Another book, too, was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged by their deeds, as the books recorded them.

**13** The sea, too, gave up the dead that lay there, and death and hell gave up the dead they imprisoned, and each man was judged according to his deeds,

**14** while death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death;

**15** everyone must be thrown into this lake of fire, unless his name was found written in the book of life.

## CHAPTER 21

**1** Then I saw a new heaven, and a new earth. The old heaven, the old earth had vanished, and there was no more sea.

**2** And I, John, saw in my vision that holy city which is the new Jerusalem, being sent down by God from heaven, all clothed in readiness, like a bride who has adorned herself to meet her husband.

**3** I heard, too, a voice which cried aloud from the throne, Here is God’s tabernacle pitched among men; he will dwell with them, and they will be his own people, and he will be among them, their own God.

**4** He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, or mourning, or cries of distress, no more sorrow; those old things have passed away.

**5** And he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. (These words I was bidden write down, words most sure and true.)

**6** And he said to me, It is over. I am Alpha, I am Omega, the beginning of all things and their end; those who are thirsty shall drink—it is my free gift—out of the spring whose water is life.

**7** Who wins the victory? He shall have his share in this; I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

**8** But not the cowards, not those who refuse belief, not those whose lives are abominable; not the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, not those who are false in any of their dealings. Their lot awaits them in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, and it is the second death.

**9** And now an angel came and spoke to me, one of those seven who bear the seven cups charged with the seven last plagues. Come with me, he said, and I will shew thee that bride, whose bridegroom is the Lamb.

**10** And he carried me off in a trance to a great mountain, high up, and there shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, as it came down, sent by God, from heaven,

**11** clothed in God’s glory. The light that shone over it was bright as any precious stone, as the jasper when it is most like crystal;

**12** and a great wall was raised high all round it, with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of Israel carved on the lintels;

**13** three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, three on the west.

**14** The city wall, too, had twelve foundation-stones; and these, too, bore names, those of the Lamb’s twelve apostles.

**15** The angel who was speaking to me had a rod of gold for a rule, to measure the city, and its gates, and its wall.

**16** The city lies foursquare, the same in its length as in its breadth, and when he measured it with his rod, he counted twelve thousand furlongs. Length and breadth and height are everywhere equal.

**17** And when he measured its wall, he counted a hundred and forty-four cubits, reckoned by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.

**18** The fashioning of its wall was of jasper, but the city itself was pure gold, that seemed to have the purity of glass.

**19** And the foundations of the city wall were worked in every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was a jasper, the second a sapphire, the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald;

**20** the fifth a sardonyx, the sixth a sardius, the seventh a chrysolite, the eighth a beryl; the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprase, the eleventh a jacynth, the twelfth an amethyst.

**21** And the twelve gates were twelve single pearls, one pearl for each gate; and the street of the city was of pure gold, that seemed like transparent glass.

**22** I saw no temple in it; its temple is the Lord God Almighty, its temple is the Lamb.

**23** Nor had the city any need of sun or moon to shew in it; the glory of God shone there, and the Lamb gave it light.

**24** The nations will live and move in its radiance; the kings of the earth will bring it their tribute of praise and honour.

**25** All day the gates will never be shut (there will be no night there),

**26** as the nations flock into it with their honour and their praise.

**27** Nothing that is unclean, no source of corruption or deceit can ever hope to find its way in; there is no entrance but for those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

## CHAPTER 22

**1** He shewed me, too, a river, whose waters give life; it flows, clear as crystal, from the throne of God, from the throne of the Lamb.

**2** On either side of the river, mid-way along the city street, grows the tree that gives life, bearing its fruit twelvefold, one yield for each month. And the leaves of this tree bring health to all the nations.

**3** No longer can there be any profanation in that city; God’s throne (which is the Lamb’s throne) will be there, with his servants to worship him,

**4** and to see his face, his name written on their foreheads.

**5** There will be no more night, no more need of light from lamp or sun; the Lord God will shed his light on them, and they will reign for ever and ever.

**6** Then the angel said to me, These words are sure and true. The Lord God who inspires his prophets has sent his angel to tell his servants what must soon find its due accomplishment.

**7** Patience, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who holds fast the words of prophecy this book contains.

**8** All this I, John, heard and saw, till, hearing and seeing it, I fell down as if to worship at the feet of the angel who revealed it to me.

**9** But he said, Never that; I am only a fellow servant of thine, and of thy brother prophets, and of all who hold fast the words which this book contains. Keep thy worship for God.

**10** Then the command came to me, Do not seal up the words of prophecy that are contained in this book; the time is close at hand.

**11** Meanwhile, the wrong-doer must persist in his deeds of wrong, the corrupt in his corruption, the just man in winning his justification, the holy in his life of holiness.

**12** Patience, I am coming soon; and with me comes the award I make, repaying each man according to the life he has lived.

**13** I am Alpha, I am Omega, I am before all, I am at the end of all, the beginning of all things and their end.

**14** Blessed are those who wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb; so they will have access to the tree which gives life, and find their way through the gates into the city.

**15** No room there for prowling dogs, for sorcerers and wantons and murderers and idolaters, for anyone who loves falsehood and lives in it.

**16** I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you the assurance of this in your churches; I, the root, I, the offspring of David’s race, I, the bright star that brings in the day.

**17** The Spirit and my bride bid me come; let everyone who hears this read out say, Come. Come, you who are thirsty, take, you who will, the water of life; it is my free gift.

**18** To all who hear the words of prophecy this book contains, I give this warning. If anyone adds to them, God will add to his punishment the plagues which this book threatens;

**19** and if anyone cancels a word in this book of prophecy, God will cancel his share in the book of life, in the holy city, in all that this book promises.

**20** And he who gives this warning says, Indeed I am coming soon. Be it so, then; come, Lord Jesus.

**21** May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

## FOOTNOTES

**Revelation 1:2:**
**‘One who bore witness of God’s word’;**

others would understand this as meaning

‘the man who has now borne record of God’s word’,

and as referring to the Apocalypse itself.

But a comparison of **Revelation 1:9;** **Revelation 6:9,** **And** **Revelation 20:4**

below

suggests that the verb here means bearing witness to God’s word in face of persecution

**(cf.** **1 Timothy. 6:13);**

in which case the Apostle is identifying himself

as an eye-witness of the gospel story

and a confessor for the faith.
**Revelation 1:15:**
**Orichalc,**

an unidentified metal

of the ancient world.
**Revelation 1:20:**

This may refer to the

angel guardians of the churches,

or perhaps to their bishops.
**Revelation 2:6:**

There is a tradition that this sect was founded by Nicolaus the deacon **(Acts. 6:5)** but this is uncertain. They seem to have been antinomian in doctrine.
**Revelation 2:16:**
**‘In thy turn’;**

this may mean ‘like the Christians at Ephesus’ **(Revelation** **2** **verse** **5** **above),**

but more probably refers to the purge of religion ordered in **Numbers. 25:5.**
**Revelation 4:4:**

The word ‘elders’ here may also be translated ‘presbyters’.
**Cf.** **Ezekiel. 1:5-Ezekiel. 1:11.**

These figures were identified by some of the earliest Christian writers

as representing the four Evangelists.
**Revelation 4:10:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 4:5-Revelation 4:10:**

All the verbs in these sentences, except one, are in past tenses,

according to our version.

The Greek,

and some manuscripts of the Latin,

give the present tense in **verses** **Revelation 4:5-Revelation 4:8,**

the future in **verses** **Revelation 4:9** **and** **Revelation 4:10.**
**Revelation 5:8:**
**‘Disclosed’;**

it is not clear in what sense.

The Greek manuscripts have ‘took it up’.
**Revelation 5:9:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 5:9,** **And** **Revelation 5:10:**

Some of the Greek manuscripts have ‘them’ and ‘they’ instead of ‘us’ and ‘we’.
**Revelation 5:11:**

The Greek has,

‘in ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands’.
**Revelation 5:12:**
**‘Godhead’;**

the Greek here has ‘riches’,

and it seems likely that the Latin version arose from a faulty reading.
**Revelation 5:13:**
**‘And on the sea, and all that is in it’;**

this is perhaps the best account to give of the Latin text here,

but it is curious that ‘on’ and ‘in’ should be rendered by the same preposition in Latin.

The Greek text seems to be

‘every creature in heaven,

and on earth,

and under the earth,

and on the sea,

and all that is in them’;

it is hard to see that the last six words add anything to the sense.
**Revelation 5:14:**

The last seven words of this verse are of doubtful authority in the Greek,

and are missing in some Latin manuscripts.
**Revelation 6:1:**
**‘Come and look’;**

most of the Greek manuscripts,

here and in the parallel passages lower down,

have simply, ‘Come’.
**Revelation 6:6:**

These are famine prices,

at which a labourer would have to

spend the whole of his day’s wages

to provide bread for himself alone.
**‘Their vengeance’;**

the Greek manuscripts have

‘his vengeance’.
**Revelation 7:8:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 7:4-Revelation 7:8:**

The list makes no mention of Dan;

St Irenaeus and other authors think that this was because

Antichrist was expected to come from that tribe.
**Revelation 8:3:**
**‘Make an offering ... out of the prayers’;**

in the Greek,

‘put it upon the prayers’,

which are thus represented as live coals in the angel’s thurible.
**Revelation 8:4:**
**Kindled by’,**

literally

‘from’;

the Greek phrase seems to mean ‘upon’.
**Revelation 9:11:**

The Latin equivalent

is not given here by the Greek manuscripts.
**Revelation 10:6:**
**‘No more waiting’;**

literally,

‘no more time’,

in which sense many commentators have understood the passage.
**Revelation 11:3:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 11:2,** **And** **Revelation 11:3:**

The forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, represent three and a half years.

These, with the three and a half days of **Revelation 11:** **verse** **11,** recall the ‘time, times, and half a time’ of **Daniel. 12:7** **(cf.** **Revelation 12.14 below).**
**Revelation 11:11:**

The language of prophecy is here exchanged for that of narrative,

the Apostle being so absorbed by his vision that he feels plunged,

as it were, into the events he is describing.
**Revelation 12:14:**

Literally,

‘a time, times, and half a time’

**(but** **cf.** **verse** **Revelation 12:6** **above),**

the mystical reckoning of Daniel’s vision **(Daniel 7:25).**
**Revelation 12:18:**

Some manuscripts read

‘I stood’

for

‘he stood’.
**Revelation 13:10:**

The reading here is uncertain,

both in the Greek and in the Latin.

It is probable that the first clause means,

‘He who is marked out for captivity, must go into captivity’,

and possible that the following clause means,

‘and he who is marked out for death, must go to his death’;

**cf.** **Jeremiah. 15:2.**

In that case, the sense is that Christians must submit to persecution without resistance;

and the last part of the sentence should be rendered,

‘Such are the endurance and the faithfulness which belongs to the saints’.
**Revelation 13:14:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 13:8-Revelation 13:14:**

The Greek here

**(except** **in** **Revelation 13:** **verse 11)**

gives the verbs in the present or future,

not in the past tense.
**Revelation 13:18:**

Both in Greek and in Hebrew,

the letters of the alphabet are used for numerical figures.

In Greek, the letters of Latinus,

in Hebrew, the letters of Nero Caesar,

would add up to the required sum,

but these identifications are uncertain.
**Revelation 14:6:**
**‘Final’;**

literally

‘eternal’.

It is not clear why the ‘gospel’ preached by the angel is so described;

but the context suggests that it is the last call to repentance

which will be offered to men this side of eternity.
**Revelation 14:13:**

Many commentators prefer to take

‘henceforward’

as part of the previous sentence.
**Revelation 14:18:**
**‘Had power over the fire on it’;**

apparently a reference to **Revelation 8:5** above.

Some would render ‘had power over fire’ in general;

but it is difficult to see what relevance this has in the present context.
**Revelation 15:3:**

The song of Moses’ refers presumably to **Exodus. 15.**

It is not clear whether ‘the song of the Lamb’

is a song inspired by the Lamb,

or one which had the Lamb for its theme;

in the latter case,

it refers to **Revelation 5.12** above.

For ‘King of the ages’

some of the best Greek manuscripts have

‘King of the nations’.
**Revelation 16:7:**
**‘I heard another, too, saying from the altar’;**

in the Greek,

‘I heard, too, the altar saying’.
**Revelation 16:13:**
**‘His false prophet’;**

that is,

apparently,

the second Beast **(Revelation 13:11).**

This verse is a parenthesis,

which insists upon the suddenness of God’s visitations;

**cf.** **Matthew. 24:18;** **And** **2 Corinthians. 5:3.**
**Revelation 16:16:**

The Latin here has

‘he will gather them’;

in the Greek,

‘they gathered them’.
**Revelation 16:19:**

‘The great city’ may be Jerusalem (11.8);

but some commentators

understand a double reference

in this verse to Babylon,

that is, Rome.
**Revelation 17:11:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 17:8,** **And** **Revelation 17:11:**

It has been conjectured that the seven kings

are the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, and Titus

(Galba, Otho, and Vitellius being regarded as usurpers).

There seems to have been a popular legend that Nero was not really dead,

or perhaps would come to life again;

he would thus be one of the seven and yet, as reincarnate, count as an eighth.

If this interpretation is right,

the present passage seems to allude to the short reign of Titus as the seventh king,

and to identify his successor,

Domitian,

as a reincarnation of Nero, whose persecuting policy he revived.
**Revelation 17:12:**
**‘In succession to the beast’;**

the Greek has

‘together with the beast’.
**Revelation 17:16:**
**‘The ten horns, which the beast had in thy vision’;**

the Greek has,

‘the ten horns in thy vision, together with the beast’.
**Revelation 18:6:**
**‘As she has dealt with you’;**

in the Greek,

‘as she has dealt with others’.

If the sentence be understood in this way,

it is best to regard it as addressed to the angels in heaven,

not to the martyrs.
**Revelation 18:13:**

The word ‘balm’ is omitted,

probably by an error of printing,

in the Clementine edition of the Vulgate.
**Revelation 18:17:**
**‘Between ports’;**

literally,

‘to a place’,

according to the Greek.

Some Latin manuscripts have

‘to the lake’,

apparently through the misreading of a single letter.
**Revelation 19:3:**

It is not certain that the words

‘the smoke of her burning goes up everlastingly’

are represented as part of the triumph-song.
**Revelation 19:8:**
**‘The merits’;**

literally,

‘the things which justify them’.
**Revelation 19:10:**

St Augustine thinks that St John mistook the Angel

**(cf.** **Revelation 17:1** **above)**

for Christ himself;

but the ground on which the Angel refuses his worship

seems to be that St John, too, was a prophet.

Some think that the passage is a warning against the worship of Angels

**mentioned** **in** **Colossians. 2:18.**
**Revelation 20:5:**
**‘While the thousand years lasted’;**

literally,

‘until the thousand years were accomplished’;

but this does not imply that the reprobate dead came to life

at the end of the thousand years **(see** **p. 3,** **note 3).**
**Revelation 20:7:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 20:2-Revelation 20:7:**

This passage gave rise to the error of the Millenarians,

who held (as some Jewish authors held) that Christ would reign on earth,

in visible triumph,

for the period of a thousand years,

between the Second Coming

and

the Final Judgement.

Catholic expositors identify the thousand years with an indefinite but prolonged period between the Resurrection and the Second Coming in Judgement

(which latter event will be preceded by a brief interval when the devil will triumph through Antichrist).

During this period the elect,

living or dead,

will worship Christ reigning in heaven,

and share in the glories of his Church;

they will be spiritually alive,

even when they have passed through the first death,

that of the body.

The reprobate will,

already,

be spiritually as well as physically dead.

**Revelation** **v.** **Revelation 20:7:**

Gog and Magog are an allusion

to the prophecy of **Ezechiel** **(chs.** **Ezekiel 38** **And** **Ezekiel 39).**
**Revelation 21:5:**
**‘These words I was bidden write down’;**

literally,

‘He says to me, Write it down’.

It is not clear whether this direction was given by the Voice from the throne,

or by the Angel mentioned in **Revelation 17:1**

(who is clearly the speaker in **Revelation 19:9,**

although the word ‘angel’ does not occur in the original).
**Revelation 21:16:**
**‘Are everywhere equal’,**

not, presumably, equal to one another,

which would make the city nearly 1500 miles high,

whereas the next verse

gives the height of the wall as 144 cubits.

More probably the meaning is that the height of the city

was uniform at every point,

as its length and its breadth were.
**Revelation 22:2:**

It is likely enough that the trees are represented

as bearing twelve different kinds of fruit,

but St John’s language does not make this certain.
**Revelation 22:6:**
**‘The angel said to me’;**

literally,

‘he said to me’.
**Revelation 22:9:**
**See** **p.** **340,** **note** **2.**
**Revelation 22:10:**
**‘The command came to me’;**

literally,

‘he said to me’.

The context seems to indicate that our Lord

is here the speaker,

not the Angel, as in **Revelation 22:** **verse** **6.**
**Revelation 22:14:**

Some Greek manuscripts have

‘those who carry out his commandments’,

instead of

‘those who wash their garments’.

The words

‘in the blood of the Lamb’

are not given in the Greek,

or in most Latin manuscripts.
**Revelation 22:19:**
**For** **‘the book of life’,**

the Greek

(followed by many Latin manuscripts)

has

‘the tree of life’;

our text probably arises from a mistake in the Latin.
**Revelation 22:20:**

The words

‘Be it so’

represent

‘Amen’

in the Greek,

which is attached by some commentators

to the sentence which goes before it.
**Revelation 22:21:**

The best reading

in the Greek here

is

‘with the saints’,

or

‘with all the saints’,

not

‘with you all’;

many of the Greek manuscripts omit the word

‘Amen’.

## CROSS-REFERENCES

**Revelation 1:7:**
**Cf.** **Zechariah. 12:10;** **And** **John. 19:37.**
**Zechariah. 12:10.** **KNOX:**
**10** On David’s clan, on all the citizens of Jerusalem, I will pour out a gracious spirit of prayer; towards me they shall look, me whom they have pierced through. Lament for him they must, and grieve bitterly; never was such lament for an only son, grief so bitter over first-born dead.

**John. 19:37.** **KNOX:**
**37** And again, another passage in scripture says, They will look upon the man whom they have pierced.
**Revelation 1:17:**
**Cf.** **Isaiah. 44:6;** **And** **Matthew. 14:27.**
**Isaiah. 44:6;** **KNOX:**
**6** Thus says the Lord, Israel’s king and ransomer, the Lord of hosts: I am before all; there is no other God but I.

**Matthew. 14:27** **KNOX:**
**27** But all at once Jesus spoke to them; Take courage, he said, it is myself; do not be afraid.
**Revelation 2:14:**
**Numbers. 31:16.**
**Numbers. 31:16.** **KNOX:**
**16** Was it not these that beguiled the sons of Israel, at the prompting of Balaam, and led you to play the Lord false by worshipping Phogor, so that a plague fell on the whole people?
**Revelation 2:27:**
**Revelation** **vv.** **Revelation 2:26,** **And** **Revelation 2:27:**
**Psalms. 2:8-Psalms. 2:9.**
**Psalms. 2:8-Psalms. 2:9.** **KNOX:**
**8** Ask thy will of me, and thou shalt have the nations for thy patrimony; the very ends of the world for thy domain. **9** Thou shalt herd them like sheep with a crook of iron, break them in pieces like earthenware.
**Revelation 2:28:**
**Cf.** **Revelation 22:16**  **below.**
**Revelation 22:16**  **KNOX:**
**16** I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you the assurance of this in your churches; I, the root, I, the offspring of David’s race, I, the bright star that brings in the day.
**Revelation 11:4:**
**Cf.** **Zechariah. 4:3.** **and** **following.**
**Zechariah. 4:3.** **KNOX:**
**3** And there are two olive-trees hanging over it, one to the right and one to the left of the bowl.
**Revelation 11:6:**
**Cf.** **James. 5:17;** **And** **Exodus. 7:20.**
**James. 5:17;** **KNOX:**
**17** Elias was only a mortal man like ourselves, and when he prayed and prayed that it might not rain on the land, there was no rain for three years and six months;

**Exodus. 7:20.** **KNOX:**
**20** So Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had bidden them; Aaron lifted up his staff and struck the waters of the river in the presence of Pharao and his court, and the river turned to blood.
**Revelation 19:15:**
**Psalms. 2:9;** **And** **Isaiah. 63:3.**
**Psalms. 2:9;** **KNOX:**
**9** Thou shalt herd them like sheep with a crook of iron, break them in pieces like earthenware.

**Isaiah. 63:3.** **KNOX:**
**3** None other has trodden the wine-press but I only; out of all the nations, no champion came to stand at my side. I have been treading them down in my anger, trampling on them, full of vengeance; their blood that has been sprinkled on the clothes about me; I come in garments deep-dyed.

## OTHER BOOKS OF THE KNOX BIBLE TRANSLATION

 **THE BOOKS OF THE CATHOLIC BIBLE IN THE KNOX BIBLE TRANSLATION**

### Old Testament

#### Pentateuch/Torah:

1. The Book of Genesis
2. The Book of Exodus
3. The Book of Exodus
4. The Book of Exodus
5. The Book of Exodus

#### Historical Books:

1. The Book of Joshua
2. The Book of Judges
3. The Book of Ruth
4. The First Book of Samuel
5. The Second Book of Samuel
6. The First Book of Kings
7. The Second Book of Kings
8. The First Book of Chronicles
9. The Second Book of Chronicles
10. The Book of Ezra
11. The Book of Nehemiah
12. The Book of Tobit
13. The Book of Judith
14. The Book of Esther
15. The First Book of Maccabees
16. The Second Book of Maccabees

#### Poetic Books:

1. The Book of Job
2. The Book of Psalms
3. The Book of Proverbs
4. The Book of Ecclesiastes
5. The Book of the Song of Songs
6. The Book of Wisdom
7. The Book of Sirach

#### Prophetic Books:

1. The Book of Isaiah
2. The Book of Jeremiah
3. The Book of Lamentations
4. The Book of Baruch
5. The Book of Ezekiel
6. The Book of Daniel
7. The Book of Hosea
8. The Book of Joel
9. The Book of Amos
10. The Book of Obadiah
11. The Book of Jonah
12. The Book of Micah
13. The Book of Nahum
14. The Book of Habakkuk
15. The Book of Zephaniah
16. The Book of Haggai
17. The Book of Zechariah
18. The Book of Malachi

### New Testament

#### The Four Gospels

1. The Gospel according to Matthew
2. The Gospel according to Mark
3. The Gospel according to Luke
4. The Gospel according to John

#### Pauline Epistles

1. The Epistle to the Romans
2. The First Epistle to the Corinthians
3. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians
4. The Epistle to the Galatians
5. The Epistle to the Ephesians
6. The Epistle to the Philippians
7. The Epistle to the Colossians
8. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians
9. The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
10. The First Epistle to Timothy
11. The Second Epistle to Timothy
12. The Epistle to Titus
13. The Epistle to Philemon

#### The General Epistles/Catholic Epistles

1. The Epistle of James
2. The First Epistle of Peter
3. The Second Epistle of Peter
4. The First Epistle of John
5. The Second Epistle of John
6. The Third Epistle of John
7. The Letter of Jude

## OTHER TRANSLATIONS OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

### Latin Translations

#### Vulgate

* Original Vulgate (O-VULGATE)
* Clementine Vulgate (C-VULGATE)
* Stuttgart Vulgate (S-VULGATE)
* Nova Vulgata (N-VULGATE)

### Greek Translations

#### Greek LXX OT/Scrivener NT

* Greek LXX OT/Scrivener NT - Original (LXX/S - O)
* Greek LXX OT/Scrivener NT - Anglicized (LXX/S - A)

### English Translations

#### Christian Community Bible

* Christian Community Bible (CCB)
* Christian Community Bible - Revised Edition (CCB-RE)

#### Douay-Rheims Bible

* Douay-Rheims Bible - Original (DRB-O)
* Douay–Rheims Bible - Challoner Revision (DRB-CR)
* Douay-Rheims Bible - 1899 American Edition (DRB-AE)

#### Jerusalem Bible

* Jerusalem Bible (JB)
* New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
* Revised New Jerusalem Bible (RNJB)

#### New American Bible

* New American Bible (NAB)
* New American Bible - Revised Edition (NAB-RE)

#### Revised Standard Edition /New Revised Standard Edition

* Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition (RSV-CE)
* New Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)
* New Revised Standard Version - Anglicised Catholic Edition (NRSV-ACE)

#### Other English Translations

* Contemporary English Version (CEV)
* English Standard Version - Catholic Edition (ESV-CE)
* Good News Bible - Catholic Edition (GNB-CE)
* **Knox Bible (KNOX)**

### Other Translations

#### Bisaya/Cebuano

* Ang Bag-ong Maayong Balita (ABMB)
* Biblia sa Kristohanong Katilingban (BKK)

#### Spanish

* Biblia de Jerusalen (BdJ)

Template:The Book of Revelation Translations