4 After that, I looked and wow, a door opening in heaven, and the first voice that I’d heard that sounded like a trumpet told me, “Come up here and I’ll show you what must happen after those things.” 2 Immediately I was in the spirit and wow, a throne was appearing in heaven with someone sitting on it.[ref] 3 The one sitting there sparkled like jewels, and an emerald-looking rainbow encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding that throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on them sat twenty-four elders dressed in white and with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the centre throne came lightning flashes and thunderous sounds and voices. In front of it, seven torches were burning, which are God’s seven spirits.[ref] 6 In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass that was as clear as crystal.

Around the throne were four living creatures, covered both front and back with eyes.[ref] 7 This first living creature resembled a lion, the second resembled a bull, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth one resembled a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings with eyes all around and underneath them. Day and night they never stop saying:[ref]

‘Holy, holy, holy,

is the master, almighty God,

who was and is and is to come.’

9 Whenever the living creatures praise the one sitting on the throne and honour him and thank him (the one who lives through all the ages), 10 the twenty-four elders drop to their knees with their faces to the ground in front of the one sitting on the throne and worship the one who lives through all the ages. They place their crowns down in front of the throne and say:

11 “You, our God and master, are worthy to receive praise and honour and power,

because you created everything.

Everything exists just as you determined to create it.”