The Scroll and the Lamb

¹I saw in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on the inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.

²I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

³No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the scroll or to look in it.

⁴Then I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look in it.

⁵One of the elders says to me, “Don’t weep. Look! The Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as if it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

⁷Then he came, and he took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.

⁸Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one held a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

⁹They sang a new song, saying,

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were butchered,

and with your blood you purchased for God people

from every tribe, tongue, people, and ethnic group,

¹⁰You have made them to be an empire and priests to our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. The number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands.

¹²They were saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was butchered to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!”

¹³Then I heard every created thing in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, honor, glory, and dominion, for ever and ever!

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.