Chapter 4

1After this I looked, and there was an open door in heaven. The same voice I had heard before, sounding like a trumpet as it spoke to me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.”

2Immediately I came under the Spirit’s power. There in heaven stood a throne, with someone seated on it.

3The one seated there looked like jasper and carnelian gemstones. A rainbow resembling an emerald surrounded the throne.

4Around the throne were twenty-four other thrones. Twenty-four elders sat on them, dressed in white clothes and wearing gold crowns on their heads.

5Flashes of lightning, sounds, and crashes of thunder came from the throne. Seven blazing lamps burned in front of it. These are God’s seven spirits.

6In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Four living creatures stood at the throne’s center and around it. They were covered with eyes in front and behind.

7The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like a young bull, the third had a face like a human face, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.

8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes outside and inside. Day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, who rules over all, who was, who is, and who is coming.”

9Whenever the living creatures give praise, honor, and thanks to the one seated on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, this is what happens:

10The twenty-four elders fall before the one seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

11“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive praise, honor, and power, because you created everything. Because you wanted them to exist, they came into being and were created.”