Read & explore together
The New Jerusalem
In this vision, an angel shows John the New Jerusalem. The passage describes the city’s beauty, its measured design, and the way God’s presence and the Lamb’s light define life there.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
Revelation 21:9–27 presents a vision shown by one of the angels with the seven bowls. John is carried in the Spirit to a high mountain and shown the holy city coming down out of heaven from God. The passage stays focused on what John sees and hears about this city.
Revelation 21:9–27Main takeaway
This vision presents the New Jerusalem as a holy city filled with God’s glory, ordered in every detail, and open only to those written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01The bride shown as a holy cityThe angel invites John to see “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, and what John is shown is “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”.
Explanation
The angel invites John to see “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, and what John is shown is “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”. The image joins a people and a city in one vision. Its first defining feature is “the glory of God”, shining like a precious, crystal-clear stone.
02Twelve gates and twelve foundationsThe city has a great high wall, twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates. The gates bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, spread evenly on east, north, south and west.
Explanation
The city has a great high wall, twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates. The gates bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, spread evenly on east, north, south and west. The wall’s twelve foundations carry the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, showing a city marked throughout by God’s people.
03Measured and richly builtThe angel measures the city, its gates and walls with a golden reed. The city is square, with equal length, width and height.
Explanation
The angel measures the city, its gates and walls with a golden reed. The city is square, with equal length, width and height. Its wall is also measured. John then describes dazzling materials: jasper walls, a city of pure gold like glass, foundations adorned with precious stones, pearl gates, and a golden street like transparent glass.
04No temple, no night, no profane thingJohn sees no temple in the city because “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”.
Explanation
John sees no temple in the city because “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”. The city does not need sun or moon because God’s glory gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp. Nations and kings bring glory into it, its gates never shut, and nothing profane enters, only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Why is it important that the angel says he will show “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, and then shows John a holy city?
Notice the exact movement from the angel’s words to what John sees, and describe both parts together without adding extra details.
02What repeated use of “twelve” tells you about the city’s design?
List the twelves in order: gates, tribes, foundations and apostles, and consider how carefully ordered the city appears.
03What does the passage say is absent from the city, and what is present instead?
Compare the missing temple, sun, moon, night and profane things with the presence of God’s glory, the Lamb, open gates and the book of life.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Revelation 21:9–27
9One 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.”
10He 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,
11having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12having 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.
13On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
14The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
15He who spoke with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its walls.
16The 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.
17Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.
18The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass.
19The 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,
20the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
21The 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.
22I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23The 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.
24The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
25Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there),
26and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it so that they may enter.
27There 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.