Revelation 8–9

The Seventh Seal

8When the Lamb broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.

^3*Another angel, who had a gold incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a lot of incense to add to the prayers of all God’s people and to offer it on the gold altar that stands before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the burning incense went up with the prayers of God’s people from the hands of the angel standing before God. ^5*Then the angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. There were rumblings and peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

The Trumpets

⁶Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

^7*The first angel blew his trumpet. Hail and fire, mixed with blood, came pouring down on the earth. A third of the earth was burnt up, a third of the trees, and every blade of green grass.

⁸Then the second angel blew his trumpet. Something that looked like a huge mountain on fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea was turned into blood, ⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

^10*Then the third angel blew his trumpet. A large star, burning like a torch, dropped from the sky and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ^11*(The name of the star is “Bitterness”.) A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter.

^12*Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet. A third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that their light lost a third of its brightness; there was no light during a third of the day and a third of the night.

¹³Then I looked, and I heard an eagle that was flying high in the air say in a loud voice, “O horror! horror! How horrible it will be for all who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets that the other three angels must blow!”

9Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss.^{d 2*}The star opened the abyss, and smoke poured out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. ^3*Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have. ^4*They were told not to harm the grass or the trees or any other plant; they could harm only the people who did not have the mark of God’s seal on their foreheads. ⁵The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months. The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion’s sting. ^6*During those five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

^7*The locusts looked like horses ready for battle; on their heads they had what seemed to be crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces. ^8*Their hair was like women’s hair, their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ^9*Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months. ¹¹They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning “The Destroyer”).

¹²The first horror is over; after this there are still two more horrors to come.

^13*Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God. ¹⁴The voice said to the sixth angel, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” ¹⁵The four angels were released; for this very hour of this very day of this very month and year they had been kept ready to kill a third of all humanity. ¹⁶I was told the number of the mounted troops: it was two hundred million. ¹⁷And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur. The horses’ heads were like lions’ heads, and from their mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulphur. ¹⁸A third of humanity was killed by those three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of the horses’ mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.

^20*The rest of humanity, all those who had not been killed by these plagues, did not turn away from what they themselves had made. They did not stop worshipping demons, nor the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. ²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or their stealing.