Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw one who had fallen to earth from heaven,[a] and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from some huge furnace, and the sun and air were darkened by the smoke.
3 Then locusts came from the smoke and descended onto the earth and were given power to sting like scorpions. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees, but to attack those people who did not have the mark of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not to kill them, but to torture them for five months with agony like the pain of scorpion stings. 6 In those days men will try to kill themselves but won’t be able to—death will not come. They will long to die—but death will flee away!
7 The locusts looked like horses armored for battle. They had what looked like golden crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like men’s. 8 Their hair was long like women’s, and their teeth were those of lions. 9 They wore breastplates that seemed to be of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had stinging tails like scorpions, and their power to hurt, given to them for five months, was in their tails. 11 Their king is the Prince of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon (and in English, the Destroyer).[b]
12 One terror now ends, but there are two more coming!
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the golden altar that stands before the throne of God, 14 saying to the sixth angel, “Release the four mighty demons[c] held bound at the great River Euphrates.” 15 They had been kept in readiness for that year and month and day and hour, and now they were turned loose to kill a third of all mankind. 16 They led an army of 200,000,000 warriors[d]—I heard an announcement of how many there were.
17-18 I saw their horses spread out before me in my vision; their riders wore fiery-red breastplates, though some were sky-blue and others yellow. The horses’ heads looked much like lions’, and smoke and fire and flaming sulphur billowed from their mouths, killing one-third of all mankind. 19 Their power of death was not only in their mouths, but in their tails as well, for their tails were similar to serpents’ heads that struck and bit with fatal wounds.
20 But the men left alive after these plagues still refused to worship God! They would not renounce their demon-worship, nor their idols made of gold and silver, brass, stone, and wood—which neither see nor hear nor walk! 21 Neither did they change their mind and attitude about all their murders and witchcraft, their immorality and theft.
10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face shone like the sun and his feet flashed with fire. 2 And he held open in his hand a small scroll. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth 3 and gave a great shout—it was like the roar of a lion—and the seven thunders crashed their reply.
4 I was about to write what the thunders said when a voice from heaven called to me, “Don’t do it. Their words are not to be revealed.”
5 Then the mighty angel standing on the sea and land lifted his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it and the earth and all that it contains and the sea and its inhabitants, that there should be no more delay, 7 but that when the seventh angel blew his trumpet, then God’s veiled plan—mysterious through the ages ever since it was announced by his servants the prophets—would be fulfilled.
8 Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again, “Go and get the unrolled scroll from the mighty angel standing there upon the sea and land.”
9 So I approached him and asked him to give me the scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “At first it will taste like honey, but when you swallow it, it will make your stomach sour!” 10 So I took it from his hand, and ate it! And just as he had said, it was sweet in my mouth, but it gave me a stomachache when I swallowed it.
11 Then he told me, “You must prophesy further about many peoples, nations, tribes, and kings.”
11 Now I was given a measuring stick and told to go and measure the temple of God, including the inner court where the altar stands, and to count the number of worshipers.[e] 2 “But do not measure the outer court,” I was told, “for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the Holy City for forty-two months.[f] 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses to prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These two prophets are the two olive trees,[g] and two candlesticks standing before the God of all the earth. 5 Anyone trying to harm them will be killed by bursts of fire shooting from their mouths. 6 They have power to shut the skies so that no rain will fall during the three and a half years they prophesy, and to turn rivers and oceans to blood, and to send every kind of plague upon the earth as often as they wish.
7 When they complete the three and a half years of their solemn testimony, the tyrant who comes out of the bottomless pit[h] will declare war against them and conquer and kill them; 8-9 and for three and a half days their bodies will be exposed in the streets of Jerusalem (the city fittingly described as “Sodom” or “Egypt”)—the very place where their Lord was crucified. No one will be allowed to bury them, and people from many nations will crowd around to gaze at them. 10 And there will be a worldwide holiday—people everywhere will rejoice and give presents to each other and throw parties to celebrate the death of the two prophets who had tormented them so much!
11 But after three and a half days, the spirit of life from God will enter them, and they will stand up! And great fear will fall on everyone. 12 Then a loud voice will shout from heaven, “Come up!” And they will rise to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watch.
13 The same hour there will be a terrible earthquake that levels a tenth of the city, leaving 7,000 dead. Then everyone left will, in their terror, give glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe is past, but the third quickly follows:
15 For just then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting down from heaven, “The Kingdom of this world now belongs to our Lord, and to his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.”[i]
16 And the twenty-four Elders sitting on their thrones before God threw themselves down in worship, saying, 17 “We give thanks, Lord God Almighty, who is and was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry with you, but now it is your turn to be angry with them. It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants—prophets and people alike, all who fear your Name, both great and small—and to destroy those who have caused destruction upon the earth.”
19 Then, in heaven, the temple of God was opened and the ark of his covenant could be seen inside. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed and roared, and there was a great hailstorm, and the world was shaken by a mighty earthquake.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.