Open English Translation REV Chapter 7

7 After that I saw four messengers standing around the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.[ref] 2 Then I saw another messenger coming up from the direction of the rising sun, and he was holding the living God’s seal. He called out loudly to the four messengers that God had permitted to damage the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we can mark the seal on the foreheads of God’s servants.”[ref] 4 Then I heard the count of those who were marked with the seal. There were 144,000 from all of Israel’s tribes. 5 There were 12,000 from the tribes of Yehudah, Reuben, Gad, 6 Asher, Naftali, Manashsheh, 7 Shimeon (Simeon), Levi, Yissashkar (Issachar), 8 Zebulun, Yosef (Joseph), and Benyamin (Benjamin).

9 After that, I looked and wow, there was a huge crowd too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and the lamb, having been dressed in white robes and holding palm branches, 10 and they were shouting loudly, “Our God who’s sitting on the throne has saved us! The lamb has saved us!” 11 Then all the messengers stood around the throne, and around the elders and the four living beings. The messengers all knelt down in front of the throne with their faces to the ground and worshipped God 12 saying, “Yes, may it be so. May praise and GLORY and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be given to our God who lives through all the ages! May it be so.”

13 Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are those people in white robes and where have they come from?”

14 “Sir, you are the one who knows,” I answered.[ref]

And then he told me, “Those are the ones who’ve come through the terrible tribulation, and they’ve washed their robes in the blood of the lamb and made them white. 15 That’s why they’re here in front of God’s throne, and they worship him day and night in his temple, and the one sitting on the throne will extend his protection over them. 16 They won’t be hungry or thirsty any longer, and the sun won’t burn them with its scorching heat,[ref] 17 because the lamb that’s there at the throne will shepherd them. The lamb will guide them to the springs of living water, and God will ensure that every tear is wiped away from their eyes.”[ref] SHOULD THIS BE IN POETIC FORMAT?