“And they sung as it were a new song before the throne—no man could sing that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” [Margin says, _bought_.] Now mark! these were bought from the earth, and they sung a song that no man could learn. This must have been one which they had learned in their united experience, something like the song of Moses on the banks of deliverance from the Egyptians. No other people could have sung the song because it was the song of their deliverance, for as I have stated these first five verses show this 144,000 in their immortal state, “redeemed from the earth,” (not out of it.) “These are they which were not defiled with women.” “The woman which thou sawest is the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”—xvii: 18, called Babylon, (the nominal churches). These, then, were the same ones that had come out of the churches; see 8-11 verses, and xv: 2 verse. If the other view is insisted upon, then _all_ of this 144,000 must be men and the women would have no part in that number—no matter where they are said to come from—“_for they are virgins_.” Being clear of the harlot mother and her children; and of those in the parable of the ten virgins that went into the marriage of the Bridegroom makes them emphatically so. “_These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth._” The above shows that they did follow him, and John shows that they do now in their glorified state; see xix chapter, 14th verse. “_These_ WERE _redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the lamb_.”—4th verse. Redeemed or bought from among men (not from among the dead) nor from out of the earth, but from “among men and from the earth.” The first fruits cannot be until the harvest, and that cannot be until Jesus comes to reap it with his sharp sickle, see 14th and 15th verses; remember too, that the description John is here giving, is the 144,000 with Jesus, after he has reaped the harvest of the earth.