¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.

² I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband.

³ Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them.

⁴ He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone.'

⁵ Then the One sitting on the throne spoke. 'Look, I am making the whole of creation new. Write this, "What I am saying is trustworthy and will come true."

⁶ Then he said to me, 'It has already happened. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty;

⁷ anyone who proves victorious will inherit these things; and I will be his God and he will be my son.

⁸ But the legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and the sexually immoral, and for sorcerers, worshippers of false gods or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur.'

⁹ One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came to speak to me and said, 'Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married.'

¹⁰ In the spirit, he carried me to the top of a very high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God.

¹¹ It had all the glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond.

¹² Its wall was of a great height and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel;

¹³ on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

¹⁴ The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵ The angel that was speaking to me was carrying a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and wall.

¹⁶ The plan of the city is perfectly square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs, equal in length and in breadth, and equal in height.

¹⁷ He measured its wall, and this was a hundred and forty-four cubits high -- by human measurements.

¹⁸ The wall was built of diamond, and the city of pure gold, like clear glass.

¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first with diamond, the second lapis lazuli, the third turquoise, the fourth crystal,

²⁰ the fifth agate, the sixth ruby, the seventh gold quartz, the eighth malachite, the ninth topaz, the tenth emerald, the eleventh sapphire and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made of a single pearl, and the main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

²² I could not see any temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple,

²³ and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

²⁴ The nations will come to its light and the kings of the earth will bring it their treasures.

²⁵ Its gates will never be closed by day -- and there will be no night there-

²⁶ and the nations will come, bringing their treasure and their wealth.

²⁷ Nothing unclean may come into it: no one who does what is loathsome or false, but only those who are listed in the Lamb's book of life.