Revelation 8–9

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

8When he opened the seventh seal,^x there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

²And I saw the seven angels^y who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.^z

³Another angel,^a who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people,^b on the golden altar^c in front of the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God^d from the angel’s hand. ⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar,^e and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder,^f rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.^g

The Trumpets

⁶Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets^h prepared to sound them.

⁷The first angelⁱ sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire^j mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third^k of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.^l

⁸The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain,^m all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A thirdⁿ of the sea turned into blood,^{o 9}a third^p of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky^q on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water^r—¹¹the name of the star is Wormwood.^a A third^s of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.^t

¹²The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third^u of them turned dark.^v A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.^w

¹³As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair^x call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe^y to the inhabitants of the earth,^z because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

9The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.^a The star was given the key^b to the shaft of the Abyss.^{c 2}When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.^d The sun and sky were darkened^e by the smoke from the Abyss.^{f 3}And out of the smoke locusts^g came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions^h of the earth. ⁴They were told not to harmⁱ the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^j but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{k 5}They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^l And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^m when it strikes. ⁶During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.ⁿ

⁷The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.^o On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.^{p 8}Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.^{q 9}They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.^{r 10}They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.^{s 11}They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss,^t whose name in Hebrew^u is Abaddon^v and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹²The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.^w

¹³The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns^x of the golden altar that is before God.^{y 14}It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels^z who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”^{a 15}And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released^b to kill a third^c of mankind.^{d 16}The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.^e

¹⁷The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths^f came fire, smoke and sulfur.^{g 18}A third^h of mankind was killedⁱ by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur^j that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent^k of the work of their hands;^l they did not stop worshiping demons,^m and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.^{n 21}Nor did they repent^o of their murders, their magic arts,^p their sexual immorality^q or their thefts.