The Living Bible (397 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
As I watched, the Lamb broke the first seal and began to unroll the scroll. Then one of the four Living Beings, with a voice that sounded like thunder, said, “Come!”
2
I looked, and there in front of me was a white horse. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed upon his head; he rode out to conquer in many battles and win the war.
3
Then he unrolled the scroll to the second seal and broke it open, too. And I heard the second Living Being say, “Come!”
4
This time a red horse rode out. Its rider was given a long sword and the authority to banish peace and bring anarchy to the earth; war and killing broke out everywhere.
5
When he had broken the third seal, I heard the third Living Being say, “Come!” And I saw a black horse, with its rider holding a pair of balances in his hand.
6
And a voice from among the four Living Beings said, “A loaf of bread for $20, or three pounds of barley flour,
*
but there is no olive oil or wine.”
*
7
And when the fourth seal was broken, I heard the fourth Living Being say, “Come!”
8
And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals.
9
And when he broke open the fifth seal, I saw an altar, and underneath it all the souls of those who had been martyred for preaching the Word of God and for being faithful in their witnessing.
10
They called loudly to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge the people of the earth for what they’ve done to us? When will you avenge our blood against those living on the earth?”
11
White robes were given to each of them, and they were told to rest a little longer until their other brothers, fellow servants of Jesus, had been martyred on the earth and joined them.
12
I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a vast earthquake; and the sun became dark like black cloth, and the moon was blood-red.
13
Then the stars of heaven appeared to be falling to earth
*
—like green fruit from fig trees buffeted by mighty winds.
14
And the starry heavens disappeared
*
as though rolled up like a scroll and taken away; and every mountain and island shook and shifted.
15
The kings of the earth, and world leaders, and rich men, and high-ranking military officers, and all men great and small, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and rocks of the mountains,
16
and cried to the mountains to crush them. “Fall on us,” they pleaded, “and hide us from the face of the one sitting on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb,
17
because the great day of their anger has come, and who can survive it?”
Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds from blowing so that not a leaf rustled in the trees, and the ocean became as smooth as glass.
2
And I saw another angel coming from the east, carrying the Great Seal of the Living God. And he shouted out to those four angels who had been given power to injure earth and sea,
3
“Wait! Don’t do anything yet—hurt neither earth nor sea nor trees—until we have placed the Seal of God upon the foreheads of his servants.”
4-8
How many were given this mark? I heard the number—it was 144,000; out of all twelve tribes of Israel, as listed here:
| Judah | 12,000 |
| Reuben | 12,000 |
| Gad | 12,000 |
| Asher | 12,000 |
| Naphtali | 12,000 |
| Manasseh | 12,000 |
| Simeon | 12,000 |
| Levi | 12,000 |
| Issachar | 12,000 |
| Zebulun | 12,000 |
| Joseph | 12,000 |
| Benjamin | 12,000 |
9
After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from all nations and provinces and languages, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
10
And they were shouting with a mighty shout, “Salvation comes from our God upon the throne, and from the Lamb.”
11
And now all the angels were crowding around the throne and around the Elders and the four Living Beings, and falling face down before the throne and worshiping God.
12
“Amen!” they said. “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be to our God forever and forever. Amen!”
13
Then one of the twenty-four Elders asked me, “Do you know who these are, who are clothed in white, and where they come from?”
14
“No, sir,” I replied. “Please tell me.”
“These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation,” he said; “they washed their robes and whitened them by the blood of the Lamb.
15
That is why they are here before the throne of God, serving him day and night in his temple. The one sitting on the throne will shelter them;
16
they will never be hungry again, nor thirsty, and they will be fully protected from the scorching noontime heat.
17
For the Lamb standing in front of the throne
*
will feed them and be their Shepherd and lead them to the springs of the Water of Life. And God will wipe their tears away.”
When the Lamb had broken the seventh seal, there was silence throughout all heaven for what seemed like half an hour.
2
And I saw the seven angels that stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.
3
Then another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; and a great quantity of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people, to offer upon the golden altar before the throne.
4
And the perfume of the incense mixed with prayers ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.
5
Then the angel filled the censer with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed and rumbled, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake.
6
Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts.
7
The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down upon the earth. One-third of the earth was set on fire so that one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass.
8-9
Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and what appeared to be a huge burning mountain was thrown into the sea, destroying a third of all the ships; and a third of the sea turned red as blood;
*
and a third of the fish were killed.
10
The third angel blew, and a great flaming star fell from heaven upon a third of the rivers and springs.
11
The star was called “Bitterness”
*
because it poisoned a third of all the water on the earth and many people died.
12
The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and immediately a third of the sun was blighted and darkened, and a third of the moon and the stars so that the daylight was dimmed by a third, and the nighttime darkness deepened.
13
As I watched, I saw a solitary eagle flying through the heavens crying loudly, “Woe, woe, woe to the people of the earth because of the terrible things that will soon happen when the three remaining angels blow their trumpets.”
Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw one who had fallen to earth from heaven,
*
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).
*
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
*
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
*
—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.