⁹ I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^(A)

³ It stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, to the seat of the image of jealousy that provokes to jealousy.^(A)

⁸ Then 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.” ⁹ So 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.”^{(A) 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.^(B)

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

The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed^[a] with seven seals,^{(A) 2} and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁴ And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵ Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”^(B)

¹⁰ But then a hand touched me and roused me to my hands and knees.^(A)

3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^(A)

¹⁶ Then one in human form touched my lips, and I opened my mouth to speak and said to the one who stood before me, “My lord, because of the vision such pains have come upon me that I retain no strength.^{(A) 17} How can my lord’s servant talk with my lord? For I am exhausted;^[a] no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”

¹⁸ Again one in human form touched me and strengthened me.

The Writing on the Wall

⁵ Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote.^(A)

² Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today.^(A)