Revelation 1:10–20

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

¹²Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,^{* 13}and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.^{* 14}His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire;^{* 15}his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.^{* 16}In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.^*

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last^{* 18}and the Living One. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.^{* 19}Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. ²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.^*