8And when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. ³And another angel who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar, and a large amount of incense was given to him, in order that he could offer the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. ⁴And the smoke of the incense went up before God with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel. ⁵And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire from the altar and threw it to the earth, and there were thunders and sounds and lightnings and an earthquake.

The Blowing of the Trumpets

⁶And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves in order to blow them.

⁷And the first blew the trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸And the second angel blew the trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, ⁹and a third of the creatures in the sea—the ones which had life—died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰And the third angel blew the trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹And the name of the star was called Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters because they were made bitter.

¹²And the fourth angel blew the trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened, and the day did not shine with respect to a third of it, and the night likewise.

¹³And I looked, and I heard one eagle flying directly overhead^a, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who live on the earth, from the remaining sounds of the trumpets of the three angels who are about to blow the trumpet!”

Tormenting Locusts from the Abyss

9And the fifth angel blew the trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the shaft of the abyss was given to him. ²And he opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke went up from the shaft like smoke from a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. ³And out of the smoke locusts came to the earth, and power was given to them like the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴And it was told to them that they should not damage the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, except those people who do not have the seal of God on their^* foreheads. ⁵And it was granted to them that they should not kill them, but that they would be tormented five months, and their torment is like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. ⁶And in those days people will seek death and will never find it, and they will long to die, and death will flee from them.

⁷And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads were something like crowns similar in appearance to gold, and their faces were like men’s faces, ⁸and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions, ⁹and they had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots^a running into battle. ¹⁰And they have tails similar in appearance to scorpions, and stings, and their power to injure people for five months is in their tails. ¹¹They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name^b in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

¹²The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

A Third of Humanity Killed by Plagues

¹³And the sixth angel blew the trumpet, and I heard one voice from the horns^c of the golden altar that is before God ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel, the one who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who have been bound at the great river Euphrates!” ¹⁵And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released, in order that they should kill a third of humanity. ¹⁶And the number of the troops of the cavalry was two hundred million^d; I heard the number of them. ¹⁷And in this way I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them, who had fiery red and hyacinth-colored and sulphurous yellow breastplates, and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and sulphur. ¹⁸By these three plagues a third of humanity was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are similar in appearance to snakes, having heads, and with them they cause injury.^e

²⁰And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, in order not to worship^f the demons and the gold and silver and bronze and stone and wooden idols, which are able neither to see nor to hear nor to walk, ²¹and they did not repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual immorality or of their thefts.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

aLiterally “in midheaven,” i.e., “at the zenith”
*Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun
aLiterally “chariots of horses”
bLiterally “the name to him”
cSome manuscripts have “four horns”
dLiterally “twenty thousands of ten thousands”
eLiterally “they injure”
fLiterally “so that they did not worship”