Chapter 20

¹Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. ²He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, ³and hurled him into the abyss and he closed it and sealed it over him, to keep him from leading the heathen astray any longer, until the thousand years are over; after that he has to be released for a little while.

⁴Then I saw thrones with beings seated on them, who were empowered to act as judges. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus and the message of God, who refused to worship the animal and its statue, and would not have its mark put on their foreheads or on their hands. They were restored to life and reigned with the Christ a thousand years. ⁵The rest of the dead were not restored to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy is the man who experiences the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them; they will be priests of God and the Christ, and reign with him for the thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸and will go out to lead astray the heathen in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and to muster them for battle, in numbers like the sand of the seashore. ⁹They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the encampment of God’s people, and the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰and the devil who led them astray was flung into the fiery, sulphurous lake, where the animal and the false prophet were, there to be tortured day and night forever and ever.

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne with a being seated on it from whose presence earth and sky fled so far that they could not be found. ¹²I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened; it was the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books about what they had done. ¹³The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and the underworld gave up the dead that were in them, and they were all judged by what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were flung into the fiery lake. This is the second death—the fiery lake. ¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was flung into the fiery lake.