¹⁵ See to it that no one ^(A)comes short of the grace of God; that no ^(B)root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become ^(C)defiled;

¹⁶ that there be no ^(A)sexually immoral or ^(B)godless person like Esau, ^(C)who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded, and a great star ^(A)fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a ^(B)third of the rivers and on the ^(C)springs of waters.

¹¹ The star is named Wormwood; and a ^(A)third of the waters became ^(B)wormwood, and many people died from the waters because they were made bitter.

⁹ And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he *said to me, “^(A)Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” ¹⁰ I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. ¹¹ And ^(B)they *said to me, “You must ^(C)prophesy again concerning ^(D)many peoples, nations, languages, and ^(E)kings.”

¹⁰ By this the ^(A)children of God and the ^(B)children of the devil are obvious: ^[a]anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who ^(C)does not love his ^(D)brother and sister.

^11 (E)For this is the message ^(F)which you have heard from the beginning, ^(G)that we are to love one another; ¹² not as ^(H)Cain, who was of ^(I)the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because ^(J)his own deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.

The Beast from the Earth

¹¹ Then ^(A)I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had ^(B)two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a ^(C)dragon.

¹⁵ And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even ^[a]speak and cause ^(A)all who do not ^(B)worship the image of the beast to be killed.

¹² For ^(A)the word of God is ^(B)living and ^(C)active, and sharper than any two-edged ^(D)sword, even penetrating as far as the division of ^(E)soul and ^(F)spirit, of both joints and marrow, and ^(G)able to ^[a]judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.