---
title: Revelation 5:9
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-5-9/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-5-9.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 5:9
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 5:9

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And they sang a new song:  “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought people for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Revelation 5:9 as describing the Lamb's purchase of "people" — those who become members of Jehovah's organisation through Christ's ransom. The four living creatures and elders sing about the redeemed; the redeemed are drawn from every nation. On the JW reading, this purchase initiates the gathering of the 144,000 anointed and, secondarily, the great crowd whose hope is earthly.

## Protestant Usage

The Greek text reads simply "you bought for God" — there is no explicit object. The NWT inserts "people" to detach the singers from those purchased; standard manuscripts and the consensus of English versions read "you ransomed us for God" (ESV) or "you redeemed us to God" (KJV). The "us" is decisive: the singers ARE the purchased. And the purchased are "from every tribe and tongue and people and nation" — the exact phrase used of the great crowd in Revelation 7:9. The Watchtower divides the group; the verse unites it. Christ's blood bought one redeemed people from every tribe — and that one people, in v10, is made a kingdom and priests to God. Universal priesthood begins here.

## NWT Issue

The NWT inserts "people" where the Greek has no explicit object: "you bought people for God" rather than "you bought us for God" (ESV/NASB) or "you redeemed us" (KJV). Even the textual variants that lack hēmas ("us") still take the singers as the natural antecedent. The NWT's choice subtly detaches the singers (potentially the 144,000 in JW reading) from those purchased (potentially the great crowd) — supporting the two-class soteriology by undoing the verse's natural identification of singers with the purchased.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [A Royal Priesthood — Every Believer is a Priest](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/universal-priesthood-1peter29.md) — 1 Peter 2:9 / Revelation 1:6 / 5:10 — The end of mediating classes [Authority]