Revelation 7 (New Living Translation)

Revelation 7: 1-17

God’s People Will Be Preserved

1 Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. And he shouted to those four angels, who had been given power to harm land and sea, 3 “Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.”

4 And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God—144,000 were sealed from all the tribes of Israel:
5 from Judah — 12,000 from Reuben — 12,000 from Gad — 12,000 6 from Asher — 12,000 from Naphtali — 12,000 from Manasseh — 12,000 7 from Simeon — 12,000 from Levi — 12,000 from Issachar — 12,000 8 from Zebulun — 12,000 from Joseph — 12,000 from Benjamin — 12,000

Praise from the Great Crowd
9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a mighty shout,
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. 12 They sang,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13 Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in[a] the great tribulation.[b] They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.
15 “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter.
16 They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun.
17 For the Lamb on the throne[c] will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Footnotes:
Revelation 7:14 Greek who came out of.
Revelation 7:14 Or the great suffering.
Revelation 7:17 Greek on the center of the throne.

Commentaries:

The sixth trumpet is followed by the loosing of four angels bound in the great river Euphrates.

In the figurative language of Scripture, the blowing of the four winds together, means a dreadful and general destruction. But the destruction is delayed. Seals were used to mark for each person his own possessions. This mark is the witness of the Holy Ghost, printed in the hearts of believers. And the Lord would not suffer his people to be afflicted before they were marked, that they might be prepared against all conflicts. And, observe, of those who are thus sealed by the Spirit, the seal must be on the forehead, plainly to be seen alike by friends and foes, but not by the believer himself, except as he looks stedfastly in the glass of God's word. The number of those who were sealed, may be understood to stand for the remnant of people which God reserved. Though the church of God is but a little flock, in comparison with the wicked world, yet it is a society really large, and to be still more enlarged. Here the universal church is figured under the type of Israel. (Rev 7:9-12)