AUV(i)
9 I [am] John, your brother who participates with you in the suffering and kingdom and endurance [which we experience] in [fellowship with] Jesus. I was on the island called Patmos for [preaching] God’s message and for testifying about Jesus. [Note: Patmos was located in the Aegean Sea between present-day Greece and Turkey].
10 I was in [i.e., under the influence of] the Holy Spirit on the Lord’s day [i.e., Sunday], when I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet,
11 saying, “Write down in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicia” [Note: These seven congregations were all located in western Asia Minor].
12 And I turned to see [whose] voice was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw someone [who looked] like a son of man [i.e., Jesus. See verses 17-18]. He was dressed in a robe that reached down to His feet and He had a golden sash around His chest.
14 And His head and hair [i.e., probably meaning the hairs of His head] were as white as wool, or as snow, and His eyes were like flaming fire.
15 And His feet were like shiny brass, [glowing] as when it is being refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of much rushing water.
16 And He had seven stars in His right hand [See verse 20], and a sharp, double-edged sword came out of His mouth. And His face [shone] as the sun, shining in [all] its brilliance.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as [though I were] dead. And He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last,
18 and the Living One. I was dead, and see, I am [now] alive forever and ever! And I possess the keys of death and of the unseen place of departed spirits.
19 “So, write down the things that you have seen, and the things now going on, and the things that will happen later on.
20 The secret of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands [is this]: The seven stars are the angels [i.e., messengers] of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”