Psalms 87:3

²⁷My tent also will be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ²⁸The nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forever more.”’”

¹¹I will multiply man and animal on you. They will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before, and you will do better than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹²Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will never again bereave them of their children.”

¹³“‘The Lord GOD says: “Because they say to you, ‘You are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;’ ¹⁴therefore you shall devour men no more, and not bereave your nation any more,” says the Lord GOD. ¹⁵“I won’t let you hear the shame of the nations any more. You won’t bear the reproach of the peoples any more, and you won’t cause your nation to stumble any more,” says the Lord GOD.’”

¹⁶Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. ¹⁸Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. ¹⁹I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. I judged them according to their way and according to their deeds. ²⁰When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, ‘These are the LORD’s people, and have left his land.’ ²¹But I had respect for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.

²²“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord GOD says: “I don’t do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. ²³I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am proven holy in you before their eyes.

²⁴“‘“For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. ²⁵I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them. ²⁸You will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you. ³⁰I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

³¹“‘“Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. ³²I don’t do this for your sake,” says the Lord GOD. “Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.”

³³“‘The Lord GOD says: “In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the waste places will be built. ³⁴The land that was desolate will be tilled instead of being a desolation in the sight of all who passed by. ³⁵They will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The waste, desolate, and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.’ ³⁶Then the nations that are left around you will know that I, the LORD, have built the ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.”

³⁷“‘The Lord GOD says: “For this, moreover, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock. ³⁸As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so the waste cities will be filled with flocks of men. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

¹⁰He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; ¹²having a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. ¹³On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵He who spoke with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its walls. ¹⁶The city is square. Its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand twelve stadia.^[+] Its length, width, and height are equal. ¹⁷Its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits,^[+] by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. ¹⁸The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city’s wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire,^[+] the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was made of one pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. ²⁵Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there), ²⁶and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it so that they may enter. ²⁷There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

²Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. ³God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.

¹²They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all. ¹³Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, ²³to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

¹I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.

²“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. ³For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your offspring will possess the nations and settle in desolate cities. ⁴“Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed. Don’t be confounded, for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the shame of your youth. You will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more. ⁵For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the whole earth. ⁶For the LORD has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God. ⁷“For a small moment I have forsaken you, but I will gather you with great mercies. ⁸In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer. ⁹“For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. ¹⁰For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says the LORD who has mercy on you.

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. ¹²Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. ¹³Notice her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation.

³to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. ⁴They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the former devastated places. They will repair the ruined cities that have been devastated for many generations. ⁵Strangers will stand and feed your flocks. Foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards. ⁶But you will be called the LORD’s priests. Men will call you the servants of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations. You will boast in their glory. ⁷Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them. ⁸“For I, the LORD, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the offspring which the LORD has blessed.” ¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in the LORD! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.