Isaiah 60
Good News Translation
The Future Glory of Jerusalem
60 Arise, Jerusalem, and shine like the sun;
The glory of the Lord is shining on you!
2 Other nations will be covered by darkness,
But on you the light of the Lord will shine;
The brightness of his presence will be with you.
3 Nations will be drawn to your light,
And kings to the dawning of your new day.
4 (A)Look around you and see what is happening:
Your people are gathering to come home!
Your sons will come from far away;
Your daughters will be carried like children.
5 You will see this and be filled with joy;
You will tremble with excitement.
The wealth of the nations will be brought to you;
From across the sea their riches will come.
6 Great caravans of camels will come, from Midian and Ephah.
They will come from Sheba, bringing gold and incense.
People will tell the good news of what the Lord has done!
7 All the sheep of Kedar and Nebaioth
Will be brought to you as sacrifices
And offered on the altar to please the Lord.
The Lord will make his Temple more glorious than ever.
8 What are these ships that skim along like clouds,
Like doves returning home?
9 They are ships coming from distant lands,
Bringing God's people home.
They bring with them silver and gold
To honor the name of the Lord,
The holy God of Israel,
Who has made all nations honor his people.
10 The Lord says to Jerusalem,
“Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
And their kings will serve you.
In my anger I punished you,
But now I will show you my favor and mercy.
11 (B)Day and night your gates will be open,
So that the kings of the nations
May bring you their wealth.
12 But nations that do not serve you
Will be completely destroyed.
13 “The wood of the pine, the juniper, and the cypress,
The finest wood from the forests of Lebanon,
Will be brought to rebuild you, Jerusalem,
To make my Temple beautiful,
To make my city glorious.
14 (C)The descendants of those who oppressed you will come
And bow low to show their respect.
All who once despised you will worship at your feet.
They will call you ‘The City of the Lord,’
‘Zion, the City of Israel's Holy God.’
15 “You will no longer be forsaken and hated,
A city deserted and desolate.
I will make you great and beautiful,
A place of joy forever and ever.
16 Nations and kings will care for you
As a mother nurses her child.
You will know that I, the Lord, have saved you,
That the mighty God of Israel sets you free.
17 “I will bring you gold instead of bronze,
Silver and bronze instead of iron and wood,
And iron instead of stone.
Your rulers will no longer oppress you;
I will make them rule with justice and peace.
18 The sounds of violence will be heard no more;
Destruction will not shatter your country again.
I will protect and defend you like a wall;
You will praise me because I have saved you.
19 (D)“No longer will the sun be your light by day
Or the moon be your light by night;
I, the Lord, will be your eternal light;
The light of my glory will shine on you.
20 Your days of grief will come to an end.
I, the Lord, will be your eternal light,
More lasting than the sun and moon.
21 Your people will all do what is right,
And will possess the land forever.
I planted them, I made them,
To reveal my greatness to all.
22 Even your smallest and humblest family
Will become as great as a powerful nation.
When the right time comes,
I will make this happen quickly.
I am the Lord!”
Revelation 21:9-22:5
Good News Translation
The New Jerusalem
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to me and said, “Come, and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 (A)The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God 11 and shining with the glory of God. The city shone like a precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 (B)It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels in charge of the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel. 13 There were three gates on each side: three on the east, three on the south, three on the north, and three on the west. 14 The city's wall was built on twelve foundation stones, on which were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 (C)The angel who spoke to me had a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city was perfectly square, as wide as it was long. The angel measured the city with his measuring stick: it was fifteen hundred miles long and was as wide and as high as it was long. 17 The angel also measured the wall, and it was 216 feet high,[a] according to the standard unit of measure which he was using.[b] 18 (D)The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself was made of pure gold, as clear as glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh yellow quartz, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chalcedony, the eleventh turquoise, the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate was made from a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. 23 (E)The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God shines on it, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 (F)The peoples of the world will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it. 25 (G)The gates of the city will stand open all day; they will never be closed, because there will be no night there. 26 The greatness and the wealth of the nations will be brought into the city. 27 (H)But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of the living will enter the city.
22 (I)The angel also showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, and coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 (J)and flowing down the middle of the city's street. On each side of the river was the tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, once each month; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. 3 (K)Nothing that is under God's curse will be found in the city.
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4 [c]They will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 (L)There shall be no more night, and they will not need lamps or sunlight, because the Lord God will be their light, and they will rule as kings forever and ever.
Footnotes
- Revelation 21:17 high; or thick.
- Revelation 21:17 In verses 16 and 17 the Greek text speaks of “12,000 furlongs” and “144 cubits” which may have symbolic significance.
- Revelation 22:4 2Esd 7:98
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
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