1. After this happened I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The angels were holding the four winds of the earth. They were stopping the wind from blowing on the land or the sea or on any tree.
2. Then I saw another angel coming from the east. This angel had the seal of the living God. The angel called out in a loud voice to the four angels. These were the four angels that God had given the power to hurt the earth and the sea. The angel said to them,
3. “Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees before we mark the foreheads of those who serve our God.”
4. Then I heard how many people had God’s mark on their foreheads. There were 144,000. They were from every tribe of the people of Israel:
5. from the tribe of Judah 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben 12,000 from the tribe of Gad 12,000
6. from the tribe of Asher 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000
7. from the tribe of Simeon 12,000 from the tribe of Levi 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar 12,000
8. from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000