The Throne in Heaven

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, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits^* 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 were created.”