² He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

⁵ Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land

⁹ I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(A) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

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)

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)

³ When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, “Come!”^[a]

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.^(A)

The Seven Seals

6 Then I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!”^[a](A)