And I heard the number: presumably the angel in charge, or some other angel, told John. It may be better to translate “I was told” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), or “someone told me.”

Of the sealed: it is much better to use a descriptive phrase, “of all those who had been marked on their foreheads with God’s seal” or “all those whom the angels had marked on their foreheads with God’s seal.” For seal see the previous verse.

A hundred and forty-four thousand: the number is symbolic, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes, indicating the totality of all of God’s people. As is true of other numbers and symbols in this book, this is not meant literally.

Every tribe of the sons of Israel: it is better to translate “every one of the tribes of Israel” or “all the Israelite tribes.”

Alternative translation models for verse 4 are:

• Someone told me that the number of those people whom the angels had marked with God’s seal on their forehead was 144,000. These people were from all twelve tribes of Israel.

Or:

• Someone told me that the angels had marked 144,000 people on their foreheads with God’s seal. These people were from….

There is no generally accepted explanation of the twelve tribes that are named. In the Old Testament the tribes are named for ten of Jacob’s twelve sons (Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher) and the two sons of Joseph (Manasseh and Ephraim). Two of Jacob’s sons, Levi and Joseph, do not have tribes named after them. In this list Levi and Joseph are named as tribes; Dan and Ephraim are not listed. There is also no explanation for the order of the names; it is generally assumed that Judah is named first because it was the tribe to which Jesus belonged.

For verses 5-8 some translators may find it helpful to imitate Good News Translation in giving the information, while others may wish to reproduce the style of the Greek text, as Revised Standard Version does, if that is the way that lists of names and numbers are handled in the receptor-language culture.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .