And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Twelve is the number of the tribes, appropriate to the Church: three by four: three, the divine, multiplied by four, the number for worldwide extension. Twelve by twelve, fixity and completeness: taken a thousandfold in 144,000. A thousand implies the world perfectly pervaded by the divine; for it is ten, the world number, raised to the power of three, the number of God.
Of all the tribes - `out of every tribe:' not 144,000 of each, but the aggregate of the 12,000 from every tribe.
Children - `sons of Israel.' Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:12, are no objection to the literal Israel being meant; for, in consummated glory, still the Church will be that "built on the foundation of the (Twelve) apostles (Israelites), Jesus Christ (an Israelite) being the chief cornerstone." Gentile believers shall have the name Jerusalem written on them, as having the heavenly citizenship antitypical to the literal Jerusalem.