The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (290 page)

¹⁵
Therefore
are they before the throne of God,

  
  and serve him day and night within
his temple
;

  
  and he who sits upon the throne will
shelter
them with his presence.

¹⁶
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;

  
  the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

¹⁷
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

  
  and he will guide them to springs of living water;

  
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

8
  
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was
silence in heaven
for about half an hour.
²
Then I saw
the seven angels
who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
³
And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the
prayers of all the saints
upon the golden altar before the throne;
⁴
and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.
⁵
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and
threw it on the earth
;
 
*
and there were peals of thunder, loud noises, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

The Seven Angels and Seven Trumpets

6
 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.

7
 
The first angel blew his trumpet
, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, which fell on the earth; and a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

8
 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea;
⁹
and a third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10
 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water.
¹¹
The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became
wormwood
, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter.

12
 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, 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 their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

13
 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice, as it flew in midheaven, "
Woe, woe, woe
to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets which the three angels are about to blow!"

9
  
And
the fifth angel blew his trumpet
, and I saw
a star
 
*
fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit;
²
he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
³
Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth;
⁴
they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not
the seal of God
upon their foreheads;
⁵
they were allowed to torture them for
five months
, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion, when it stings a man.
¹
And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.

7
 In appearance the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
⁸
their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth;
⁹
they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
¹⁰
They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails.
¹¹
They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit;
his name
in Hebrew is Abad'don, and in Greek he is called Apol'lyon.
^b

12
 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

13
 Then
the sixth angel blew his trumpet
, and I heard a voice from the four horns of
the golden altar
before God,
¹⁴
saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great
river Euphra'tes
."
 
*
¹⁵
So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the
hour, the day, the month, and the year
, to kill a third of mankind.
¹⁶
The number of the troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.
¹⁷
And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire
^c
and of sulphur, and the heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulphur issued from their mouths.
¹⁸
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulphur issuing from their mouths.
¹⁹
For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, with heads, and by means of them they wound.

20
 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues,
did not repent
of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or walk;
²¹
nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality
 
*
or their thefts.

The Angel with the Little Scroll

10
  
Then
I saw
another mighty angel
coming down
from heaven
, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
²
He had a
little scroll
open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
³
and called out with a loud voice, like
a lion roaring
; when he called out, the seven thunders sounded.
⁴
And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down."
⁵
And the angel whom I saw standing on sea and land lifted up his right hand to heaven
⁶
and
swore by him
who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there should be no more delay,
⁷
but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel,
the mystery of God
,
 
*
as he announced to his servants the prophets, should be fulfilled.

8
 Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
⁹
So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "
Take it and eat
; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet
 
*
as honey in your mouth."
¹⁰
And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
¹¹
And I was told, "You must
again prophesy
about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."

The Two Witnesses

11
 
*
 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: "Rise and
measure the temple
of God and the altar and those who worship there,
²
but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will
trample over the holy city
for forty-two months.
 
*
³
And I will grant my
two
witnesses
 
*
power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."

4
 These are the
two olive trees
and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth.
⁵
And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed.
⁶
They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to afflict the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.
⁷
And when they have finished their testimony,
the beast
that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them,
⁸
and their dead bodies will lie in the street of
the great city
 
*
which is allegorically
^d
called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
⁹
For three days and a half
men from the peoples
and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,
¹⁰
and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
¹¹
But after the three and a half days a
breath of life
from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
¹²
Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven
in a cloud
.
¹³
And at that hour there was a great
earthquake
, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14
 The second woe has passed; behold,
the third woe
is soon to come.

The Seventh Trumpet

15
 
Then the seventh angel
blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."
¹⁶
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
¹⁷
saying,

  
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who are and who were
,

  
  that you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

¹⁸
The nations raged, but your wrath came,

  
  and the time for the dead to be judged,

  
for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,