Revelation 9–17

⁹And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit;^{* 2}he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.^{* 3}Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions of the earth.^{* 4}They were told not to damage the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{* 5}They were allowed to torment them for five months but not to kill them, and the agony suffered was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.^{* 6}And in those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.^*

⁷In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,^{* 8}their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;^{* 9}they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.^{* 10}They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months. ¹¹They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,^y and in Greek he is called Apollyon.^z*

¹²The first woe has passed. There are still two woes to come.^*

¹³Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the horns^a of the golden altar before God,^{* 14}saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great River Euphrates.”^{* 15}So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind. ¹⁶The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.^{* 17}And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire^b and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.^{* 18}By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of the horses’^c mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, with heads, and with them they inflict harm.

²⁰The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.^{* 21}And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their prostitution or their thefts.

The Angel with the Little Scroll

¹⁰And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire.^{* 2}He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, ³he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded.^{* 4}And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”^{* 5}Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land

raised his right hand to heaven^*

⁶and swore by him who lives forever and ever,

who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will be no more delay,^{* 7}but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”^*

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll, and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.”^{* 10}So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.^*

¹¹Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

The Two Witnesses

¹¹Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,^{* 2}but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.^{* 3}And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.”^*

⁴These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.^{* 5}And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in this manner.^{* 6}They have authority to shut the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.^*

⁷When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will wage war on them and conquer them and kill them,^{* 8}and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically^d called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.^{* 9}For three and a half days members of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, ¹⁰and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.^*

¹¹But after the three and a half days, the breath^e of life from God entered the two witnesses,^f and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified.^{* 12}Then they^g heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them.^{* 13}At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.^*

¹⁴The second woe has passed. The third woe is coming very soon.^*

The Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Messiah,^h

and he will reign forever and ever.”^*

¹⁶Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,^{* 17}singing,

“We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty,

who are and who were,

for you have taken your great power

and begun to reign.^*

¹⁸The nations raged,

but your wrath has come,

and the time for judging the dead,

for rewarding your servants, the prophets

and saints and all who fear your name,

both small and great,

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”^*

¹⁹Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple, and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.^*

The Woman and the Dragon

¹²A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.^{* 3}Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads.^{* 4}His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to deliver a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.^{* 5}And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to ruleⁱ all the nations with a scepter of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne,^{* 6}and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.^*

Michael Defeats the Dragon

⁷And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back,^{* 8}but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.^*

¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming,

“Now have come the salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Messiah,^j

for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down,

who accuses them day and night before our God.^*

¹¹But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony,

for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.^*

¹²Rejoice then, you heavens

and those who dwell in them!

But woe to the earth and the sea,

for the devil has come down to you

with great wrath

because he knows that his time is short!”^*

The Dragon Fights Again on Earth

¹³So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued^k the woman who had delivered the male child. ¹⁴But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.^{* 15}Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood.^{* 16}But the earth came to the help…