Revelation 14 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around AD 95, during the reign of the emperor Domitian
Location
Mount Zion, the temple hill of Jerusalem, then the open sky above the earth, then a harvest field and a winepress outside the city
Audience
The seven congregations of Roman Asia, weighing the cost of refusing to participate in emperor worship
Situation
Answering the beast's mark, the Lamb stands on Mount Zion with one hundred forty-four thousand who carry his name on their foreheads. Three angels fly overhead announcing good news, the fall of Babylon, and a warning against worshipping the beast, and the chapter closes with the earth reaped in a grain harvest and a grape harvest.
Key Background
Mount Zion appears in Joel and the Psalms as the place where a remnant survives when the nations attack, so the Lamb standing there is a counter-image to the beast standing on the shore. Describing these followers as men who kept themselves undefiled uses the rules for soldiers on a holy campaign, who abstained during the march, which frames the group as an army on duty rather than a comment on marriage. Babylon is a code name for Rome used by Jewish writers after AD 70 because both empires destroyed the Jerusalem temple, and the winepress image, where grapes are crushed underfoot until juice runs out like a river, comes from Isaiah's picture of judgment.
Then I looked, and there was the standing on and with him were people who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
And I heard a sound from the like the roar of massive waterfalls and like the crack of powerful thunder. The sound I heard was like musicians playing their —
and they were singing what sounded like a in front of the throne and in front of the and the No one could learn this except the one hundred forty-four thousand who had been from the earth.
These are the ones who have not with — they kept These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among humanity as an offering of the to God and to the Lamb.
No lie was found on their lips — they are
Then I saw another flying high overhead, carrying an of to announce to everyone living on the earth — to every nation, tribe, language, and people.
He called out in a loud voice, and because the hour of his has arrived. the one who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water."
A second angel followed, saying, "Fallen! Fallen is the great — the one who made all the nations drink the wine of her
A third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, "If anyone worships the and its image, and receives a on their forehead or on their hand,
that person will also drink the wine of poured at into the cup of his They will be tormented with and in the presence of own and in the presence of the Lamb.
The smoke of their torment rises and There is no day or night, for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name."
This calls for from who keep commands and hold on to their in Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from the sky say, "Write this: is for the dead who die belonging to the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the "they will from their because what they have done goes with them."
Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was someone who looked like a of with a gold on his head and a sharp in his hand.
Then another angel came out of the calling in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Swing your sickle and harvest, because the time to harvest has come — the earth's crop is fully
So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
Then another angel came out of the temple in the sky, and he also had a sharp sickle.
Still another angel, who had came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the one holding the sharp sickle, "Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's because its grapes are fully ripe."
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth, gathered the grapes from the earth's vine, and threw them into the great of God's
The grapes were trampled in the winepress the and blood flowed from the press as high as a for about