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But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:22 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
  • KJV But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
  • BSB Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
  • NASB But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
  • NLT No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Instead you have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, with countless angels. Believers already belong to God's joyful heavenly assembly.

Overview

In glorious contrast to Sinai, the author declares that believers have come to Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling of the living God, attended by innumerable angels. This is the city Abraham sought (11:10). Through Christ, the new covenant grants present access to this heavenly reality, replacing the terror of the old with welcome and festal joy.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 40

  • Phil 3:20For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
  • Gal 4:26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
  • Ps 48:2Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.
  • Rev 14:1I 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.
  • Isa 51:11Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
  • Rev 21:2I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
  • Rev 3:12He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
  • Joel 2:32It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
  • Heb 11:10For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
  • Heb 13:14For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
  • Rev 22:19If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
  • Isa 59:20“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
  • Isa 60:14The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you; and all those who despised you will bow themselves down at the soles of your feet. They will call you Yahweh’s City, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
  • Isa 28:16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
  • Rev 5:11–12I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;
  • Dan 7:10A fiery stream issued and came out from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
  • Isa 12:6Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”
  • Hos 1:10Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
  • 2 Kgs 19:4It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
  • Deut 5:26For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?
  • Rev 7:2I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea,
  • Ps 84:2My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
  • Ps 132:13–14For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation.
  • Jer 10:10But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.
  • Ps 2:6“Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
  • Isa 51:16I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
  • Ps 87:3Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah.
  • Rev 21:10He 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,
  • Jude 1:14About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
  • Dan 6:26I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even to the end.
  • Heb 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
  • Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
  • Deut 33:2He said, “Yahweh came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them. He shone from Mount Paran. He came from the ten thousands of holy ones. At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
  • Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
  • Rom 9:26“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
  • Rom 11:26and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
  • Josh 3:10Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you.
  • 1 Th 1:9For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
  • Matt 5:35nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
  • Ps 68:17The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (7)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hebrews videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hebrews 12:22YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on HebrewsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.

How Hebrews 12:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.