Revelation 7-9

Modern English Version

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed

7 Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind would not blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. ² And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea, ³ saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” ⁴ Then I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

The Multitude From Every Nation

⁹ Then I looked. And there was a great multitude which no one could count, from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ They cried out with a loud voice:

¹¹ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, ¹² saying:

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these clothed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

He said to me, “These are those who came out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore,

The Seventh Seal

8 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³ Another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with 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, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it onto the earth. And there were noises, thundering, lightning, and an earthquake.

The Trumpets

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

⁷ The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown upon the earth. A third of the trees and all the green grass were burned up.

⁸ Then the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea became blood, ⁹ a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded, and a great star from heaven, burning like a torch, fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. ¹¹ The name of this star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹² The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day had no light, and likewise a third of the night.

¹³ Then I watched, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the other trumpet blasts of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”

9 The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. The star was given the key to the bottomless pit. ² He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke ascended from the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit. ³ And out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. Power was given them as the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴ They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were given authority, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. ⁶ In those days men will seek death but will not find it. They will desire to die, but death will elude them.

⁷ The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were something like crowns of gold, and their faces were like faces of men. ⁸ They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running to battle. ¹⁰ They had tails like scorpions and stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for five months. ¹¹ They had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek his name is Apollyon.^[d]

¹² The first woe is past. Now, two more woes are yet to come.

¹³ The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” ¹⁵ And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The army of horsemen numbered two hundred million. I heard their number.

¹⁷ Thus I saw the horses in the vision: Those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone. ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, with heads by which they inflict injury.

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not cease to worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which cannot see nor hear nor walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders or their magical arts or their sexual immorality or their thefts.