The Revelation

They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.

Their chests were like iron breastplates, and the sound their wings made was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.

They had tails like those of scorpions, with stings; and in their tails was their power to hurt people for five months.

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is “Abaddon” and in our language, “Destroyer.”

The first woe has passed, but there are still two woes to come.

The sixth angel sounded his shofar, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar before God,

saying to the sixth angel, the one with the shofar, “Release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates!”

And they were released. These four angels had been kept ready for this moment, for this day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind;

and the number of cavalry soldiers was two hundred million! — I heard the number.

Here is how the horses looked in the vision: the riders had breastplates that were fire-red, iris-blue and sulfur-yellow; the horses’ heads were like lions’ heads; and from their mouths issued fire, smoke and sulfur.

It was these three plagues that killed a third of mankind — the fire, smoke and sulfur issuing from the horses’ mouths.

For the power of the horses was in their mouths — and also in their tails, for their tails were like snakes with heads, and with them they could cause injury.

The rest of mankind, those who were not killed by these plagues, even then did not turn from what they had made with their own hands — they did not stop worshipping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

Nor did they turn from their murdering, their involvement with the occult and with drugs, their sexual immorality or their stealing.

Next I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was dressed in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, his legs like columns of fire;

and he had a little scroll lying open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

and shouted in a voice as loud as the roar of a lion; and when he shouted, seven thunderclaps sounded with voices that spoke.

When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up the things the seven thunders said, do not write them down!”

Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted his right hand toward heaven

and swore by the One who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will be no more delay;

on the contrary, in the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar, the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion, the Good News as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets.”

Next the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll lying open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land!”

So I went over to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it; and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; but after I had swallowed it, my stomach turned bitter.

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