Beginning

The fifth trumpet

9 The fifth angel made a sound with his trumpet. Then I saw a star that had fallen down from the sky to the earth. Someone gave a key to that star. The key could open the entrance to the deep hole.^{[a] 2} When the star opened the entrance, smoke came up out of the hole. It was like the smoke from a very big hot fire. The smoke caused the sun and the sky to become dark.

³ Then locusts came out of the smoke and they came down on the earth. They received power to cause great pain, like the power of scorpions. ⁴ They knew that they must not do anything bad to the grass on the earth. They must not attack any plant or any tree. They could only attack people who did not have God's seal on the front of their heads. ⁵ The locusts did not have authority to kill those people. But they could cause them very bad pain for five months. Their pain was like the great pain from a scorpion when it hurts someone. ⁶ During that time of great pain, people will want to kill themselves. They will want to die, but they will not find any way to die.

⁷ The locusts were like horses that were ready to fight in a war. They wore something on their heads that seemed to be gold crowns. Their faces looked like human faces. ⁸ Their hair was like women's hair. Their teeth were like lions' teeth. ⁹ They had shields over the front of their bodies, like shields made from iron. Their wings made a very loud noise. The sound was like many horses that are pulling chariots into a battle. ¹⁰ They had poison in their tails, like scorpions. They had power to attack people with their tails and to cause them pain for five months. ¹¹ The king that ruled them was the angel of the deep hole. His name is ‘Abaddon’ in the Hebrew language. In the Greek language his name is ‘Apollyon’.^[b]

¹² The first great trouble has now finished. But after all these things, there are two more great troubles still to come.

The sixth trumpet

¹³ Then the sixth angel made a sound with his trumpet. I heard a voice that spoke to him from the four corners of the gold altar. This altar is near to God himself. ¹⁴ The voice said to the sixth angel, ‘There are four angels at the great Euphrates river. Someone has tied them so that they cannot move. You must go and undo them!’ ¹⁵ So the four angels now became free. God had kept them ready for that special time, for that hour, in that day, in that month, in that year. They were now ready to kill a third of people everywhere. ¹⁶ I heard how many soldiers there were in their great army. There were 200 million soldiers who rode on horses.

¹⁷ In my vision, I saw the soldiers and their horses. The soldiers had shields over the front of their bodies. The shields had many colours. They were bright red like fire, bright blue, and yellow like sulphur. The horses' heads looked like lions' heads. Fire, smoke and sulphur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸ The fire, the smoke and the sulphur killed people. These three dangerous things killed a third of people everywhere. ¹⁹ The horses had great power in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails were like snakes, with heads that could hurt people very much.

²⁰ But all the people that the fire, the smoke and the sulphur did not kill continued to do bad things. They did not change how they lived. They worshipped things that they had made for themselves. They worshipped demons and idols that they made from gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood. Those idols cannot see anything or hear anything. They cannot walk anywhere. But the people continued to worship them. ²¹ They were not sorry that they murdered other people. They were not sorry that they used magic to hurt people. They continued to have sex with people in wrong ways. They continued to rob other people. They did not want to change the way that they lived.^[c]

The angel and the little book

10 Then I saw another powerful angel. He was coming down from heaven. He had a cloud all round him, like his clothes. There was a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun and his legs shone like fire. ² He had a little book in his hand and it was open. He put his right foot on the sea and he put his left foot on the land. ³ Then he shouted with a loud voice, like a lion that roars. When he shouted, seven loud voices answered him. They were like the noise of thunder. ⁴ When the seven voices of thunder spoke, I was ready to write. But I heard a voice that came from heaven. The voice said to me, ‘Keep secret what the seven voices of thunder have said. Do not write it down.’

⁵ Then I looked again at the angel who stood with one foot on the sea and his other foot on the land. He raised his right hand towards heaven. ⁶ He made a strong promise by the name of God, who lives for ever. He created heaven, the earth and the sea, as well as everything that is in them. The angel said, ‘There is no more time to wait! ⁷ Now is the time when the seventh angel will make a sound with his trumpet. Then God will quickly finish what he wants to do. This has been a secret, but he told it long ago to the prophets who were his servants.’

⁸ Then I heard again the voice that spoke to me from heaven. He said, ‘Go to the angel who is standing with one foot on the sea and his other foot on the land. Go and take the book that is open in his hand.’ ⁹ So I went to the angel. I asked him to give me the little book. He said to me, ‘Take the book and then eat it. It will be very sweet like honey in your mouth. But it will hurt your stomach like bad food.’ ¹⁰ So I took the little book from the angel's hand and I ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten the book, it hurt my stomach. ¹¹ Then the voice said to me, ‘You must continue to tell God's message to people. You must say what will happen to people from everywhere in the world. They are the people of many nations, and people who speak many languages, and also their kings.’^[d]

God's two servants

11 Someone gave me a stick, like the sticks that people use to measure things. He told me, ‘Go and measure the size of the temple and the altar. Also count the number of people who worship God there. ² But do not measure the yard that is outside God's house. Do not measure it, because God has given that yard to Gentiles who do not believe in him. They will stamp all over God's own city for 42 months and they will destroy it.

³ I will give authority to my two servants who speak my message clearly. They will tell people my messages for 1,260 days. They will wear rough clothes made from goats' hair.’^[e]

⁴ These servants are the two olive trees and the two lampstands.^[f] They stand in front of God who is the Lord of the earth. ⁵ If anyone tries to hurt them, fire comes out of the servants' mouths. This fire destroys their enemies. Anyone who wants to hurt the two servants must die in this way. ⁶ These servants of God have authority to shut up the sky. Then there will be no rain during the time that they tell their messages from God. They also have authority to cause the water on earth to become blood. They can cause many different kinds of trouble to happen on the earth. They can do this as often as they want to.

⁷ When these two servants of God have finished speaking God's messages, a wild animal will attack them. This is the animal that lives in the deep hole.^[g] It will come up out of the hole. It will be stronger than the two servants and it will kill them. ⁸ Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city where people killed their Lord on a cross.^[h] This city should be called Sodom or Egypt, because it is as bad as those places.^[i]

⁹ People from everywhere in the world will look at the servants' dead bodies for three and a half days. Those are people from every nation, from every tribe and from every language. They will not agree to bury the bodies. ¹⁰ The people who live on the earth will be very happy because the two servants of God are now dead. They will send gifts to each other because they are so happy. These two prophets of God had caused bad trouble for them, but now they have died.

¹¹ But after three and a half days, God breathed life into those dead bodies. They stood up. The people who saw them were very afraid. ¹² Then God's two servants heard a loud voice that came from heaven. The voice said, ‘Come up here.’ They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.^[j]

¹³ At the same time the ground shook with a strong earthquake. One in every ten buildings in the city fell down. 7,000 people died because of the earthquake. The people who were still alive became very afraid. They praised the God of heaven and said that he is very powerful.

¹⁴ That is the second great trouble and it has now finished. But the third great trouble will come soon.

The seventh trumpet

¹⁵ The seventh angel made a sound with his trumpet. Then there was the sound of loud voices in heaven. They shouted:

¹⁶ The 24 leaders were sitting on their thrones in front of God. Now they threw themselves down on their faces and they worshipped God. ¹⁷ They said:

¹⁹ Then the door of the temple in heaven became open. Inside it, I saw God's Covenant Box.^[k] There was a great storm with bright lightning and the loud noise of thunder. There was an earthquake and strong rain with stones of ice fell from the sky.

The woman and the great red snake

12 A very wonderful thing then appeared in the sky. I saw a woman who was wearing the sun like her clothes. The moon was under her feet. A crown of 12 stars was on her head. ² She was pregnant. She screamed with pain as she tried to give birth to her baby.

³ Then another wonderful thing appeared in the sky. It was a very big red dragon. It had seven heads and ten horns. There was a crown on each head. ⁴ Its tail beat away a third of the stars from the sky. It threw them down on the earth. Then the dragon stood in front of the woman who would soon give birth to her baby. He was waiting there to eat her child as soon as he was born. ⁵ The woman gave birth to a son. He was a man who would rule all the nations of the world with strong authority. Then someone quickly took her child away. He went up to God and to his throne. ⁶ The woman ran away into the wilderness. God had prepared a special place to keep her safe there for 1,260 days.

⁷ Then a war started in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his army of angels fought against Michael and his angels.^{[l] 8} But the dragon and his army were not strong enough to win the battle. They no longer had a place for themselves in heaven. ⁹ Michael and his angels threw the great dragon out of heaven. The dragon is called the Devil or Satan. He is the snake who has been there since long ago. He tells lies to deceive the whole world. They threw him down to the earth, together with all his angels. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven that said:

¹³ The dragon realized that they had thrown him down to the earth. So he chased after the woman who had given birth to the baby boy. He wanted to catch her. ¹⁴ But the woman received the two wings of a very big eagle. Then she could fly to the place in the wilderness that God had prepared for her. In that place God would keep her safe from the big snake. God would take care of her there for a time, times and half a time.^[m]

¹⁵ Then the dragon poured lots of water out of his mouth like a river. He wanted the river of water to carry the woman away. ¹⁶ But a big hole opened in the ground. The river that poured from the dragon's mouth went down into the hole. That helped the woman to escape. ¹⁷ As a result, the dragon was very angry with the woman. So he went away to fight a war against her other descendants. Those are the people who obey God's commands. They continue to trust Jesus and to speak his message.^[n]

¹⁸ After that, the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.