I know about your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. [I know] that you cannot tolerate wicked men and that you have tested those who call themselves apostles, but really are not, and found them to be liars.

And I will strike her children dead [or, "kill her children by some terrible calamity" See Ex. 5:3 LXX]. Then all the churches will know that I am the One who searches the inmost being of people [Note: The Greek says, "searches the kidneys and hearts." In that day these internal organs stood for the inner thoughts, emotions, etc.]. And I will repay each one of you people according to what you have done.

But I say to all the rest of you there in Thyatira who have not followed this [false] teaching [See verse 20], that is, those who have not known "the deep things of Satan," as people call them --- I will not burden you with anything else [i.e., beyond this problem about Jezebel's false teaching].

And he will rule them [as a shepherd] with a staff of iron, [and smash them] as the clay jars of a potter are broken to pieces [See Psa. 2:9]. [Note: Some translations begin verse

Then another horse came out; it was a red one, and the man riding on it was given [the ability] to take peace from the earth so that people would kill one another. And he was given a large sword.

So, I looked and before me [stood] a pale green horse, and the name of the man riding on it was "Death," and the unseen place of departed spirits followed along behind him. And they were [both] given authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill people with swords, with famine, with terrible judgments and by wild animals of the earth.

And the locusts were not given the power to kill these people, but [only] to torture them for five months. And the torment they would inflict was like a scorpion stinging a person.

And the four angels who had been ready for this hour and day and month and year were [now] released to kill one third of mankind.

For the power of the horses [to kill] is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like snakes that have heads with which to harm people.

And when they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the pit [See 13:1ff; 17:3,7] will wage war against them, and overpower and kill them.