Revelation 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

After this I looked, and right there in front of me was a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice I had heard -- the one that sounded like a trumpet talking to me -- said, "Come up here, and I will show you what has to happen after this."

Immediately I was caught up by the Breath of God, and there in front of me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

The one sitting there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and surrounding the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.

Around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders dressed in white clothing with gold crowns on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder. In front of the throne, seven blazing torches were burning -- these are the seven-fold Breath of God.

Also in front of the throne was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind.

The first living creature looked like a lion, the second like an ox, the third had a face like a human, and the fourth looked like a flying eagle.

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under their wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Unlike unlike unlike ANY other is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, who was, who is, and who is coming!"

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one sitting on the throne -- the one who lives forever and ever --

the twenty-four elders fall down before the one sitting on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns in front of the throne and say,

"You deserve it, our Lord and God -- the glory, the honor, and the power. Because you created everything, and because you wanted it to exist, it was created."