1 After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in the sky, and the first voice that I heard—as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must come to pass after these things”; 2 and immediately I was in [the] Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and on the throne is [One] sitting, 3 and He who is sitting was in appearance like a stone, jasper and sardine: and a rainbow was around the throne in appearance like an emerald. 4 And around the throne [are] twenty-four thrones, and sitting on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders, having been clothed in white garments, and on their heads golden garlands; 5 and out of the throne proceed lightnings, and thunders, and voices; and seven lamps of fire are burning before the throne, which are the Seven Spirits of God, 6 and before the throne—a sea of glass like to crystal, and in the midst of the throne, and around the throne—four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind; 7 and the first living creature—like a lion; and the second living creature—like a calf; and the third living creature has the face as a man; and the fourth living creature—like an eagle flying. 8 And the four living creatures, one by one of them had six wings respectively, around and within [are] full of eyes, and they have no rest day and night, saying, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, the LORD God, the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is coming”; 9 and when the living creatures give glory, and honor, and thanksgiving, to the [One] sitting on the throne, the [One] living through the ages of the ages, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before the [One] sitting on the throne, and worship the [One] living through the ages of the ages, and they will cast their garlands before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory, and the honor, and the power, because You created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation · Literal Standard Version
Revelation 4 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (11)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Revelation 11:12; Exodus 24:12; Revelation 1:19; Revelation 1:10; Mark 1:10
- 2 Revelation 1:10; 1 Kings 22:19; Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 3:12–14; Ezekiel 1:26
- 3 Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 21:11; Genesis 9:13–16; Revelation 10:1; Ezekiel 28:13
- 4 Matthew 19:28; Revelation 11:16; Revelation 4:10; Revelation 7:11; Revelation 20:4
- 5 Revelation 11:19; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 1:4; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 16:17–18
- 6 Revelation 15:2; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 4:8–9; Revelation 14:3; Ezekiel 10:12
- 7 Ezekiel 10:14; Ezekiel 1:10; Ezekiel 10:21; Ezekiel 1:8; Revelation 4:6
- 8 Isaiah 6:2–13; Revelation 1:8; Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 4:6; Exodus 15:11
- 9 Revelation 5:13–14; Revelation 7:11–12; Revelation 10:6; Revelation 15:7; Psalm 47:8
- 10 Revelation 5:8; Psalm 95:6; Revelation 19:4; Revelation 11:16; 1 Chronicles 29:11–16
- 11 Colossians 1:16–17; Revelation 5:12; Isaiah 40:28; Proverbs 16:4; John 1:1–3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For, [as the Scripture] says, "The first living creature was like a lion," symbolizing His effectual working, His leadership, and royal power; the second [living creature] was like a calf, signifying [His] sacrificial and sacerdotal order; but "the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,"--an evident description of His advent as a human being; "the fourth …