(l And I saw, in the right hand of him who was sitting on the throne, a book-roll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel who cried in a great voice: Who is worthy to open the book and break the seals on it? And no one in heaven or on the earth or below the earth was able to open the book, or to look at it. And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book and look at it. And one of the elders said to me: Weep no more. See, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the scion of David, has prevailed to open the book and the seven seals upon it. And I saw, in the space between the throne and the four animals and the elders, in their midst, a Lamb standing, like one that has been slaughtered, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent about to all the earth. And he came and took it from the right hand of him who sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four animals and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the book and open the seals upon it, because you were sacrificed and you bought for God by your own blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and for our God you made them be a kingdom, and priests, and they shall be kings upon the earth.
And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels in a circle about the throne and the animals and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying in a great voice: The Lamb who has been sacrificed is worthy to receive the power and the riches and the wisdom and the strength and the honor and the glory and the blessing.
And I heard all creation, whatever is in the sky and on the earth and beneath the earth and in the sea, and everything which is within these, I heard them saying: To him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing and honor and glory and power forever and ever.
And the four animals said: Amen; and the elders fell down and worshipped.
t| And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four animals saying in a voice as of thunder: Come. And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the rider upon it holding a bow, and he was given a crown, and he came forth a conqueror and to conquer. And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second animal saying: Come. And there came forth another horse, red, and to the rider upon him it was granted to take peace out of the world, so that they shall kill each other, and he was given a great sword. And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third animal saying: Come. And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the rider upon him holding a balance in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four animals, saying:
A measure of grain for a denarius, and three measures of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the oil and the wine. And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying: Come. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the rider upon it, his name is Death, and Hades came following him, and he was given power over one quarter of the earth to kill by the sword and hunger and death, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw beneath the altar the souls of those who have been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they maintained. And they cried out in a great voice, saying: How long, О Lord holy and true, will you wait to judge and to avenge our blood from those who live upon the earth? And each of them was given a white robe, and it was said to them that they must rest yet a little time until the number is filled of their fellow slaves and their brothers who are to be killed as they were. And I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and there came a great earthquake, and the sun turned black like cloth of hair, and all the moon became as blood, and the stars of the sky dropped upon the earth as the fig tree casts its unripe figs shaken by a great wind, and the sky shrank upon itself like a scroll curling, and every mountain and island was shaken from its place. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders of thousands and the rich and the strong, all, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and the anger of the Lamb, because the great day of their anger has come, and who can stand?
tl After that I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the world, so that no wind might blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. And I saw another angel going up from the rising place of the sun, carrying the seal of the living God, and he cried in a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was granted that they should devastate the earth and the sea, saying: Do not devastate the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we mark with the seal the slaves of our God, upon their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were marked, a hundred and forty-four thousand were marked, from every tribe of the sons of Israel: From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand marked with the seal;
from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Naphthali, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Manassah, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Zebulon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand marked with the seal.
After that I looked, and behold, a great multitude whose number none could count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white clothing, and palms in their hands; and they cry out in a great voice, saying: Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood in a circle about the throne and the elders and the four animals, and threw themselves down on their faces before the throneand worshipped God, saying: Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Then one of the elders spoke to me and said: Who are these who have white robes put upon them, and where have they come from? And I said to him: My Lord, you know. And he said to me: These are they who have come out of the great persecution, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore these are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits upon the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will not be hungry or thirsty any more, nor shall the sun strike upon them, nor any burning heat, because the Lamb who is in the place before the throne will be their shepherd and guide them to the springs of the waters of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.
(l And when he opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and there were given to them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer, and there was given to him much incense, for him to place it with the prayers of all the saints in the golden censer which is before the throne. And the smoke went up from the incense, by the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel before God. And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and cast it upon the earth, and there came thunders and voices and lightnings and earthquake; and the seven angels who held the seven trumpets made themselves ready to blow.
The first angel blew his trumpet; and there came hail and fire mixed with blood and it was cast upon the earth, and a third of the earth burned up, and a third of the trees burned up, and all the green grass burned up. And the second angel blew his trumpet; and something like a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and a third of the sea was turned to blood, and there died a third of the creatures of the sea, those which were alive, and a third of the boats were destroyed. And the third angel blew his trump
et: and there fell from the sky a great star burning like a torch, and it dropped upon a third of the rivers and upon the springs of the waters. The name of this star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters became wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters because they were made bitter. And 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 them was darkened, and the day lost a third of its shining, and the night likewise.
And I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in the middle of the sky, saying in a great voice: Woe woe woe to those who live upon the earth from the voices of the trumpet still to come, from the three angels who will blow their trumpets.
41 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet; and I saw a star fallen from the sky upon the earth, and there was given to him the key to the well of the bottomless pit. And he opened the well of the bottomless pit; and there came up smoke from the well like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun was darkened and the air was darkened from the smoke of the well. And out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, such power as the scorpions of the earth have. And it was said to them that they must not hurt the grass of the land, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those people who do not wear the mark of the seal of God upon their foreheads. And it was granted to them not that they should kill them but that they should torture them five months; and their torture is like the torture of the scorpion, when he strikes a man. And in those days men shall look for death but not find it, and they shall desire death but death shall escape them. And the appearance of the locusts was like that of horses armed for battle, and upon their heads crowns like gold, and their faces like the faces of men, and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like those of lions, and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was as the noise of the chariots of many horses galloping into battle. And they have tails like scorpions, and stings, and in their tails is the power to hurt men for five months. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apol- lyon. One woe has come and gone; see, there are still two more woes to come after this.
The sixth angel blew his trumpet; and I heard a single voice from the horns of the altar of gold which is before God, saying to the sixth angel, who held the trumpet: Set free the four angels who are bound, by the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were set free, they who were made ready for the hour and the day and the month and the year, to kill a third part of mankind. And the number of the cavalry of their armies is twenty thousand ten thousands; I heard their number. And thus I sawthe horses in my vision and the riders upon them, wearing breastplates colored as fue and hyacinth and sulphur, and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions, and from their mouths issue fue and smoke and sulphur. From these three afflictions a third of the people were killed, from the fue and smoke and sulphur that c^e out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like snakes with heads, and with these they do harm. And the rest of the people, who had not been killed in these afflictions, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as to stop their worshipping of demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; nor did they repent of their murders or their magic-making or their fornication or their thieving.
tl I saw another strong angel coming down from the sky, clothed in cloud, and the rainbow was on his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire, holding in his hand an opened book-roll. He planted his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the land, and cried out in a great voice, as a lion roars. And when he cried, the seven thunders spoke in their own voices. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, and I heard a voice out of the sky, saying: Seal up what the seven thunders have spoken, and do not write it down. Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land lifted his right hand into the sky, and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the sky and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there shall be no more time; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall blow his trumpet, the mystery of God shall be accomplished, as he announced to his slaves the prophets. The voice which I heard out of the sky, I heard it again speaking to me, saying: Go, take the open book-roll in the hand of the angel who stands upon the sea and the land. I went toward the angel, bidding him give me the book. And he said to me: Take it, and eat it, and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. And I took the book from the hand of the angel, and ate it, and in my mouth it was like sweet honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was bitter. Then they said to me: You must prophesy again concerning the peoples and the nations and the languages, and many kings.
41 He gave me a reed that was like a staff, saying: Rise up, and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who are worshipping there. But leave out the courtyard which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles, and they shall walk the holy city forty-two months. I shall give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the world. And if anyone tries to injure them, fire comes out of their mouth and eats up their enemies; and if anyone tries to injure them, so must he be killed. These have the power to close the sky, so that no rain may drench the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as many times as they wish.
And when they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will do battle with them and defeat them and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the square of the great city, which is called in the way of the spirit Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those of the peoples and the tribes and the tongues and the nations shall look upon their bodies three days and a half, and they shall not give up their bodies to be laid away in the tomb. And those who dwell on the earth shall rejoice over them and be happy, and send each other gifts, because these two prophets tormented the dwellers upon the earth.
But after three days and a half the breath of life from God went into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a great voice out of heaven saying: Come up here. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them. In that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell down, and in the earthquake seven thousand names of men were killed, and the rest were full of fear and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has come and gone; behold, the third woe comes soon.
The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were great voices in the sky, saying: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall be king forever and ever. Then the twenty- four elders who were seated before God on their thrones fell down upon their faces and worshipped God, saying: We thank you, Lord God almighty, who are and who were, because you have taken your great power and become King. The nations were angry, and your anger came, and the time for the judging of the dead, and for the giving of their wages to your slaves, the prophets and the saints and those who fear your name, the small and the great; and the time to destroy the destroyers of the earth.
Then the temple of God in the sky was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple, and there came lightning flashes and voices and thunders and earthquake and much hail.
fl Then there was seen a great portent in the sky, a woman clothed in the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head a crown o
f twelve stars, and she was great with child, and cried out in her travail and the pain of birth. And there was seen another portent in the sky, behold, a dragon ruddy and great, with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems, and his tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and threw them upon the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. And she bore a son, a male, who will shepherd all the nations with a staff of iron; and her child was snatched away to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled away into the desert, where she has her place made ready for her from God, to be nourished there for a thousand two hundred and sixty days. And there was a battle in the sky, Michael and his angels fighting with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought, but they did not have the power, and there was no more place found for them in heaven, but he was thrown out, the great dragon, the ancient snake, who is called the Devil and Satan, who leads astray the whole inhabited earth, he was flung to the earth and his angels were flung with him. Then I heard a great voice in the sky, saying: Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the prosecutor of our brothers has been cast down, who accused them before our God, day and night. And they defeated him through the blood of the Lamb and the word to which they testified, and they did not love their life; even to the point of death. Therefore, be glad, heavens and those who pitch their tents there. Woe to you, earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, in great anger, knowing that he has little time.
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