Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the last seven plagues came to me and said, “Come. I will show you the beautiful bride, the wife of the Lamb.” He carried me away in the realm of the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain. There he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It was infused with the glory of God, and its radiance was like that of a very rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a massive, high wall with twelve gates, and each gate had an angel. Each gate had written upon it a name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel—three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. The city wall had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The angel who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, its gates and walls. The city was laid out in a perfect square; its length, width, and height were equal. So he measured the city with his rod, and it was 12,000 stadia, with equal dimensions for its width, length, and height. He also measured the wall at 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, which is angelic.
The city was pure gold, clear as crystal, and its wall was made of jasper. The twelve foundations of the wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone—the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh turquoise, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates are twelve pearls—each gate made of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, clear as crystal.
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb.
The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
The people will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it.
Its gates will never be shut by day—standing always open—because there is no night there.
People will bring the glory and wealth of the nations into it.
Evil will not enter, nor anyone who does what is abhorrent or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Book of the Life of the Lamb.