The second catastrophe is over. The third catastrophe will soon be here.

After 3½ days the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who watched them. 

    The witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven calling to them, “Come up here.” They went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

       At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified. They gave glory to the God of heaven.

When the witnesses finish their testimony, the beast which comes from the bottomless pit will fight them, conquer them, and kill them. 

    Their dead bodies will lie on the street of the important city where their Lord was crucified. The spiritual names of that city are Sodom and Egypt. 

        For 3½ days some members of the people, tribes, languages, and nations will look at the witnesses’ dead bodies and will not allow anyone to bury them. Those living on earth will gloat over the witnesses’ death. They will celebrate and send gifts to each other because these two prophets had tormented those living on earth.

These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth. 

   If anyone wants to hurt them, fire comes out of the witnesses’ mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed the same way. 

      These witnesses have authority to shut the sky in order to keep rain from falling during the time they speak what God has revealed. They have authority to turn water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague as often as they want.

Then I was given a stick like a measuring stick. I was told, “Stand up and measure the temple of God and the altar. Count those who worship there. But do not measure the temple courtyard. Leave that out, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. 

    I will allow my two witnesses who wear sackcloth to speak what God has revealed. They will speak for 1,260 days.”

I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, it was bitter in my stomach. The seven thunders told me, “Again you must speak what God has revealed in front of many people, nations, languages, and kings.”

The voice which I, John, had heard from heaven spoke to me again. It said, “Take the opened scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

The angel whom I, John, saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. He swore an oath by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. 

    He said, “There will be no more delay. In the days when the seventh angel is ready to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be completed, as he had made this Good News known to his servants, the prophets.”

I saw another powerful angel come down from heaven. He was dressed in a cloud, and there was a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet were like columns of fire. 

   He held a small, opened scroll in his hand. He set his right foot on the sea and his left on the land. Then he shouted in a loud voice as a lion roars. When he shouted, the seven thunders spoke with voices of their own. When the seven thunders spoke, I was going to write it down. I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and don’t write it down.”

The people who survived these plagues still did not turn to me and change the way they were thinking and acting. If they had, they would have stopped worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 

    They did not turn away from committing murder, practicing witchcraft, fornication, or stealing.

In the vision that I had, the horses and their riders looked like this: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, pale blue, and yellow. The horses had heads like lions.   

    Fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths. These three plagues—the fire, smoke, and sulfur which came out of their mouths—killed one-third of humanity.

       The power of these horses is in their mouths and their tails. (Their tails have heads like snakes which they use to hurt people.)

When the sixth angel blew his trumpet, I,John, heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar in front of God. The voice said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are held at the great Euphrates River.” The four angels who were ready for that hour, day, month, and year were released to kill one-third of humanity. The soldiers on horses numbered 20,000 times 10,000. I heard how many there were.

The first catastrophe is over. After these things there are two more catastrophes yet to come.

The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They seemed to have crowns that looked like gold on their heads. Their faces were like human faces. They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like lions’ teeth. 

    They had breastplates like iron. The noise from their wings was like the roar of chariots with many horses rushing into battle. They had tails and stingers like scorpions. They had the power to hurt people with their tails for five months. 

        The king who ruled them was the angel from the bottomless pit. In Hebrew he is called Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

Locusts came out of the smoke onto the earth, and they were given power like the power of earthly scorpions.

     They were told not to harm any grass, green plant, or tree on the earth. They could harm only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them. They were only allowed to torture them for five months. Their torture was like the pain of a scorpion’s sting. At that time people will look for death and never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky. The star was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. It opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and smoke came out of the shaft like the smoke from a large furnace. The smoke darkened the sun and the air.

I saw an eagle flying overhead, and I heard it say in a loud voice, “Catastrophe, catastrophe, catastrophe for those living on earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts which the three angels are about to blow.”

When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, one-third of the sun, one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars were struck so that one-third of them turned dark. There was no light for one-third of the day and one-third of the night.

When the third angel blew his trumpet, a huge star flaming like a torch fell from the sky. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs. That star was named Wormwood. One-third of the water turned into wormwood, and many people died from this water because it had turned bitter.

When the second angel blew his trumpet, something like a huge mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. One-third of the sea turned into blood, one-third of the creatures that were living in the sea died, and one-third of the ships were destroyed.

When the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire were mixed with blood, and were thrown on the earth. One-third of the earth was burned up, one-third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Then I saw the seven angels who stand in God’s presence, and they were given seven trumpets.

    Another angel came with a gold incense burner and stood at the altar. He was given a lot of incense to offer on the gold altar in front of the throne. He offered it with the prayers of all of God’s people. The smoke from the incense went up from the angel’s hand to God along with the prayers of God’s people. The angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. Then there was thunder, noise, lightning, and an earthquake.

The seven angels who had the seven trumpets got ready to blow them.

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