This translation is from the New American Bible. The bolded hyperlinks will take you to additional translations or collections/discussions of other scriptures addressing related principles. The entire chapter is included to provide context.
Information about the meaning of the original Hebrew of Greek of italicized words is provided in blue beneath each reading.
Text highlighted in yellow tells us something about God’s nature or our relationship to Him.
Text in green tells us about something God wants us to do.
Text in red describes what God tells us not to do.
Reading 1
I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel.
After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”
All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen."
Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
Prostrated = πίπτω = piptō
To fall;losing its authority or ceasing to have force; to reduce to inactivity; to faint; to "fall" down from; to descend from a higher place to a lower; overcome by terror or astonishment; used of suppliants and persons rendering homage or worship to one; to lose authority, no longer have force; to be thrust down; to be cast down from a state of prosperity
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
fall down, and (when intentional) cast oneself down; throw oneself down, fall down; sink
Worshipped = προσκυνέω = proskyneō
to make obeisance, do reverence to; an act of homage or reverence; to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence; to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence; kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication; homage shown to men and beings of superior rank: absolutely; do reverence to, adore
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
make obeisance to; do reverence to;prostrating oneself before kings and superiors
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD? or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD, a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Seeks = בָּקַשׁ= baqash
to seek, require, desire, exact, request; to desire, demand;beg, beseech; strive after, try to get
Reading 2
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come = δεῦτε = deute
come hither, come here, come; interjection, come!, come now!; follow; come after me
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
come hither!
Gospel
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Came = προσέρχομαι = proserchomai
to come or go near to; draw near; approach
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
come or go to; approach, draw nigh; come in, surrender, capitulate; come forward to speak; appear before a tribunal; approach an official; have recourse to
Poor in spirit = πτωχός = ptōchos
one who crouches and cowers; reduced to beggary, begging, asking alms; destitute of wealth, influence, position, honour;lowly, afflicted, destitute of the Christian virtues and eternal riches; helpless, powerless to accomplish an end; destitute of wealth of learning and intellectual culture which the schools afford (men of this class most readily give themselves up to Christ's teaching and proved themselves fitted to lay hold of the heavenly treasure); absolute or public mendicancy
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
Beggarly
Synonyms of the New Testament: Richard C. Trench
one who in the sense of his abjectness and needs crouches ... in the presence of his superiors;so poor that he only obtains his living by begging
Mourn = πενθέω =pentheō
Lament; to grieve (the feeling or the act)
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
bewail, lament; go into mourning
Meek = πραΰς = praus
mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
soft, gentle; mild; tame
Hunger = πεινάω = peinaō
to suffer want; to be needy; to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire;
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
to be hungry; to be starved; crave after
Thirst = διψάω = dipsaō
suffer from thirst; painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
to be thirsty, parched; thirst after a thing
***
What these readings tell us about God and His ways:
a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb
They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”
They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever”
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it.
he founded it ... and established it
what love the Father has bestowed on us
we may be called the children of God.
we are God’s children now
what we shall be has not yet been revealed
when it is revealed we shall be like him
we shall see him as he is
I will give you rest, says the Lord.
He began to teach them
What these readings tell us to do:
They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.”
They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever”
longs to see your face
longs to see your face
hands are sinless
whose heart is clean
longs to see your face
seeks him
seeks the face of the God of Jacob
longs to see your face
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure
Come to me
his disciples came to him
the poor in spirit
mourn
meek
hunger and thirst for righteousness
merciful
clean of heart
peacemakers
persecuted for the sake of righteousness
