New Testament · Prophecy

Revelation 21

All Things New

The Bible ends where it began — God dwelling with His people. Every tear wiped away. Every broken thing made new. The gates never close.

Berean Standard Bible BSB KJV

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1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.

4‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”

5And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.”

6And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.

7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

9Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

11shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal.

12The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates.

13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west.

14The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls.

16The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal—12,000 stadia in length and width and height.

17And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the angel was using.

18The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass.

19The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.

22But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

24By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory.

25Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.

26And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations.

27But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Understand This

Revelation 21, explained

What Revelation 21 is saying

A new heaven and new earth replace the old creation, and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. God declares He is making all things new and will dwell with humanity—'they will be His peoples' (laoi, notably plural in some manuscripts), and He will be their God. Death, mourning, crying, and pain are abolished. The city is measured at 12,000 stadia per side (a perfect cube echoing the Holy of Holies), with twelve gates inscribed with the tribes' names and twelve foundations bearing the apostles' names. There is no temple, for God and the Lamb are the temple, and no sun or moon, for divine glory illuminates everything.

The background behind it

The New Jerusalem vision synthesizes Isaiah 65:17–25 (new creation), Ezekiel 40–48 (the ideal temple city), and Isaiah 60 (the glorified Zion to which nations bring their wealth). The cubic city dimensions recall the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6:20), suggesting that the entire city is now the innermost sanctuary—direct divine presence without mediation. The precious stone foundations may correspond to the high priest's breastplate gems (Exodus 28:17–20).

Themes running underneath

The absence of the temple is theologically revolutionary: the entire mediatorial system is unnecessary because God's presence is immediate and universal. The open gates through which nations bring their glory suggest that redemption includes the healing and transformation of cultural achievement, not its annihilation. The plural 'peoples' (laoi) indicates that ethnic diversity persists in the new creation as a feature, not a flaw.

Why it still matters

The New Jerusalem vision fundamentally reorients eschatology from escape to transformation. The new creation is not disembodied heaven but a renewed cosmos where the divine-human communion lost in Eden is restored and surpassed.

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Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.