Beginning

4 After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.”

² Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne ³ that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. ⁶ Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. ⁷ The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸ The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy^[a] is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!”

⁹ When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying, ¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One,^[b] to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed and were created!”

5 I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals. ² I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?” ³ No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book or to look in it. ⁴ Then I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look in it. ⁵ One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome: he who opens the book and its seven seals.”

⁶ I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. ⁷ Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸ Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ They sang a new song, saying,

¹¹ I looked, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. The number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands, ¹² saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!”

¹³ I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!”^[c]

¹⁴ The four living creatures said, “Amen!” Then the^[d] elders fell down and worshiped.^[e]

6 I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, “Come and see!” ² Then a white horse appeared, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.

³ When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!” ⁴ Another came out, a red horse. To him who sat on it was given power to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword.

⁵ When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come and see!” And behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand. ⁶ I heard a voice in the middle of the four living creatures saying, “A choenix^[f] of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius! Don’t damage the oil and the wine!”

⁷ When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see!” ⁸ And behold, a pale horse, and the name of he who sat on it was Death. Hades^[g] followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. ¹⁰ They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants and their brothers,^[h] who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course.

¹² I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. ¹³ The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴ The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place. ¹⁵ The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

7 After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. ² I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, ³ saying, “Don’t harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!” ⁴ I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, ¹² saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

¹³ One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I told him, “My lord, you know.”

He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.^[i] They washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. ¹⁵ Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. ¹⁶ They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

8 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ² I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³ Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. ⁵ The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, then threw it on the earth. Thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake followed.

⁶ The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

⁷ The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burned up,^[j] and one third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

⁸ The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood, ⁹ and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of water. ¹¹ The name of the star is “Wormwood.” One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹² The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars, so that one third of them would be darkened; and the day wouldn’t shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way. ¹³ I saw, and I heard an eagle,^[k] flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the other blasts of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”