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I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
Verse 1. New, by their form and qualities, but not by their substance.—The first heaven and first earth was passed away: being changed, not as to their substance, but in their qualities. Challoner.
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
Verse 2. Coming down from God out of heaven. By the city we must understand its citizens, the Angels and saints. Witham.—Justice, innocence, the good works of the saints, are the ornaments of the inhabitants of this new Jerusalem, the Church triumphant. If the world of the old Adam has appeared so beautiful, so magnificent, good God, what will be the riches of that which is made for Jesus Christ, the second Adam, and for his members! O Jesus! Father of the world to come, render us worthy of this new and everlasting world, and give us a disgust, a mortal hatred, for that which perishes, and which is the cause of our perdition.
I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Verse 3. Behold the tabernacle of God with men, inasmuch as God’s elect shall there dwell with him for ever and ever. Witham.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”
He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”
He said to me, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
Verse 6. It is done. The state of Christ’s Church on earth, and in this world, is now finished; and the time is come to reward the good, and to punish the wicked in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, in hell, with the devils for all eternity. Witham.—This living water is God himself, of which the saints shall be inebriated at the source; that is in God himself. Enviable moment, when all the designs of God upon Jesus Christ and upon his Church will be accomplished: but how little thought of now! And how can we hope to be inebriated at this source of God above, if we do not aspire after it whilst we are in this dreary desert here below? He who begins and finishes gratuitously here below the work of our faith, crowns it still more liberally in heaven.
He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
TR and NU omit “sinners”
The word for “sorcerers” here also includes users of potions and drugs.
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls which were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
Verse 9. I will shew thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb: all the Church triumphant in heaven. Witham.
He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
having a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
He who spoke with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its walls.
The city is square. Its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand twelve stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal.
Verse 16. The city is situate four-square; [1] and by what follows, so as to be a perfect square, though every thing that is quadrangular is not always a square, or perfect square. Witham.
12,012 stadia = 2,221 kilometers or 1,380 miles. TR reads 12,000 stadia instead of 12,012 stadia.
Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
Verse 17. The measure of a man, which is of an Angel. [2] This seems, without doubt, the sense of it. Witham.
144 cubits is about 65.8 meters or 216 feet
The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass.
The foundations of the city’s wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,
or, lapis lazuli
the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was made of one pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Verse 22. No temple in it. No need of a temple for divine worship, where God is in such a perfect manner present to all the blessed, where nothing can distract or divert their souls from endless adorations, praises, and so forth Witham.
The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb.
Verse 23. Needeth not sun nor moon, where there is no vicissitude or succession of day and night, the divine brightness always shining to them. Witham.
The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Verse 24. The kings of the earth shall bring their glory; the elect, of all states and conditions, shall now be exalted like kings, or rather infinitely above the glory that we can imagine of any kings in this world. Witham.
Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there),
and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it so that they may enter.
There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Verse 27. There shall not enter it any thing defiled. This is what we ought always to remember and have in our minds. Witham.