Revelation 1:10–20

¹⁰I was in the Spirit^Nx on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet^{y 11}saying, “Write^z on a scroll^O what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see whose voice^aa it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,^{ab 13}and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man,^Pac dressed in a robe^ad and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.^{ae 14}The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow^af—and his eyes like a fiery flame.^{ag 15}His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace,^ah and his voice like the sound of cascading^Q waters.^{ai 16}He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth,^aj and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.^ak

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.^al He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,^{am 18}and the Living One.^an I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever,^ao and I hold the keys^ap of death and Hades. ¹⁹Therefore write what you have seen,^aq what is, and what will take place after this. ²⁰The mystery^ar of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels^A of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands^B are the seven churches.^as