1. After this 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 on 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. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels. These were the four angels that God had given power to harm the earth and the sea. He said to the four angels,
3. “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees before we put the sign on the people who serve our God. We must put the sign on their foreheads.”
4. Then I heard how many people were marked with the sign. There were 144,000. They were from every tribe of the people of Israel.
5. From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were marked with the sign,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.
9. Then I looked, and there was a great number of people. There were so many people that no one could count them. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language of the earth. They were all standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and had palm branches in their hands.
10. They were shouting in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”