The Lamb Opens the Scroll

5 Then I saw a scroll^[a] in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals.

⁹ Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me. It held a scroll, ¹⁰ which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom.

¹¹ All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”

⁷ He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.

² And in his hand was a small scroll^[a] that had been opened. He stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

The Lamb Breaks the First Six Seals

6 As I watched, the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll.^[a] Then I heard one of the four living beings say with a voice like thunder, “Come!”

¹³ And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:

³ The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones—like jasper and carnelian. And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow.

⁴ But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.”

⁵ Then I, Daniel, looked and saw two others standing on opposite banks of the river. ⁶ One of them asked the man dressed in linen, who was now standing above the river, “How long will it be until these shocking events are over?”

⁷ The man dressed in linen, who was standing above the river, raised both his hands toward heaven and took a solemn oath by the One who lives forever, saying, “It will go on for a time, times, and half a time. When the shattering of the holy people has finally come to an end, all these things will have happened.”

⁸ I heard what he said, but I did not understand what he meant. So I asked, “How will all this finally end, my lord?”

⁹ But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed until the time of the end.

⁸ Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from 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 small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!” ¹⁰ So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.

¹¹ Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”