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1 (After this I saw four angels stationed at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth+ to keep them from blowing upon the land+ or over the sea or against any tree.
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the eastern horizon,+ holding the signet of the living God. He shouted a message+ to the four angels who had been assigned to bring devastation to the land+ and the sea:
3 “Don’t allow the winds to bring devastation to the land or the sea or the trees until we have marked off the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”+
4 Then I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal: 144,000, sealed from all the tribes of the people+ of Israel.
5 From the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000;
from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000;
from the tribe of Gad, 12,000;
6 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000;
from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000;
from the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000;
7 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000;
from the tribe of Levi, 12,000;
from the tribe Issachar, 12,000;
8 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000;
from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000;
from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000.
9 After these things I looked and saw something amazing:+ A huge crowd, too large for anyone to count,+ made up of people from every nation and tribe and race and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
10 They were shouting,
“Salvation belongs to our God,
to the one seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”
11 All the angels, meanwhile, were standing in a circle around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. They threw themselves down before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God,
12 declaring,
“Amen!
Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks
and honor and power and strength
be to our God forever into the ages of the ages!
Amen!”
13 In response one of the elders asked me, “These who are dressed in the long white robes: Who are they, and where did they come from?”
14 “Sir,” I replied, “ˢyou are the one who knows.”
“These are the ones who are coming out of the great time of trial and suffering,
+” he said to me. “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 That is the reason why they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his sanctuary. The one who is seated on the throne will spread his tent as a shelter over them.+
16 They ‘will never be hungry again or thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat,’+
17 because the Lamb near+ the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water.+ And God will ‘wipe away every tear from their eyes.’+”)