Blessed is he who reads aloud, blessed they who hear the words of this prophecy and lay to heart what is written in it; for the time is near.

I know your doings, your hard work and your patient endurance; I know that you cannot bear wicked men, and that you have tested those who style themselves apostles (no apostles they!) and detected them to be liars;

I know your distress and your poverty (but you are rich!): I know how you are being slandered by those who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but a mere synagogue of Satan!).

Lo, I will lay her on a sickbed, and bring her paramours into sore distress, if they do not repent of her practices;

Still, you have a few souls at Sardis who have not soiled their raiment; they shall walk beside me in white, for they deserve to.

Lo, I will make those who belong to that synagogue of Satan, who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but liars!) ??lo, I will have them come and do homage before your feet and learn that I did love you.

From the throne issue flashes of lightning and loud blasts and peals of thunder. And in front of the throne seven torches of fire burn (they are the seven Spirits of God);

The four living Creatures, each with six wings apiece, are full of eyes all over their bodies and under their wings, and day and night they never cease the chant, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is coming."

"Thou deservest, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for it was thou who didst create all things: they existed and were created by thy will."

Then I noticed a Lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living Creatures and the Presbyters; it seemed to have been slain, but it had seven horns and seven eyes (they are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth),

thou hast made them kings and priests for our God, and they shall reign on earth."

So I looked, and there was a livid horse; its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. They were given power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill men with sword and famine and plague and by the wild beasts of the earth.

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for adhering to God's word and to the testimony which they bore;

and they cried aloud, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long wilt thou refrain from charging and avenging our blood upon those who dwell on earth?"

But they were each given a white robe, and told to remain quiet for a little longer, until their number was completed by their fellow-servants and their brothers who were to be killed like themselves.

and they cried with a loud voice, "Saved by our God who is seated on the throne, and by the Lamb!"

Then one of the Presbyters addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clad in white robes? where have they come from?"

For this they are now before the throne of God, serving him day and night within his temple. and he who is seated on the throne shall overshadow them.

Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst, never shall the sun strike them, nor any scorching heat;"

(the name of the star is Wormwood); a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died of the waters, because they had turned bitter.

And out of the smoke came locusts on the earth; they were granted power like the power wielded by scorpions on earth,

but they were told not to harm the grass on earth nor any green thing nor any tree, only such human beings as had not the seal of God upon their foreheads;

these they were allowed, not to kill but to torture, for five months ??and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it stings a man.

In those days men will seek death, but they will not find it: they will long to die, but death flies from them.

they had scales like iron coats of mail; the whirring of their wings was like the noise of many chariots rushing to battle;

they had a king over them, the angel of the abyss ??his Hebrew name is Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon.

And this is how the horses and their riders looked in my vision: they wore coats of mail red as fire, dark-blue as jacinth and yellow as smoke; the horses' heads were like lions' heads, and from their mouths poured fire and smoke and brimstone.

for the power of the horses lies in their mouths ??and also in their tails (their tails are like serpents, they have heads, and it is with their heads that they hurt).

nor did they repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual vice or of their thefts.

(they are the two olive-trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth):

They have power to shut up the sky, so that no rain falls during the days when they are prophesying; and they have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and also to smite the earth with all manner of plagues as often as they choose.

But, when they have finished their testimony, the Beast that ascends from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,

But after three days and a half the breath of life from God entered them; they stood on their feet (terror fell on those who saw them)

and heard a loud voice from heaven telling them, "Come up here." So up to heaven they went in a cloud, before the eyes of their enemies.

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they had to die for it, but they did not cling to life.

they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living Creatures and the Presbyters, and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from earth.

They have not been defiled by intercourse with women ??they are celibates; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they have been ransomed from among men, as the first to be reaped for God and the Lamb.

And on their lips no lie was ever detected; they are stainless.

They were followed by another, a third angel, crying aloud, "Whoever worships the Beast and his statue, and lets his forehead or hand be marked,

the smoke of their torture rises for ever and ever, and they get no rest from it, day and night, these worshippers of the Beast and his statue, and all who are marked with his name."

This is what shows the patience of the saints ??they who keep God's commands and the faith of Jesus.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: ??'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth! Even so, it is the voice of the Spirit ??blessed in resting from their toils; for what they have done goes with them.'"

Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and marvellous: seven angels with seven plagues ??the last plagues, for they complete the wrath of God.

And I saw what was like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and, standing beside the sea of glass, those who came off conquerors from the Beast and his statue and the cipher of his name; they had harps of God

and they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb ??"Great and marvellous are thy deeds, Lord God almighty! Just and true thy ways, O King of nations!

The third poured out his bowl upon the rivers and fountains of water, and they turned blood.

They poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink! They deserve it!"

till men, scorched by the fierce heat, blasphemed the name of the God who had control of these plagues; yet they would not repent and give him glory.

And they were mustered at the spot called (in Hebrew) Harmagedon.

The Beast you have seen was, is not, but is to rise from the abyss ??yet to perdition he shall go ??and the dwellers on earth will wonder (all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of Life), when they see that the Beast was, is not, but is coming.

also, they are seven kings, of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not arrived yet ??and when he does arrive, he can only stay a little while.

As for the ten horns you have seen, they are ten kings who have no royal power as yet, but receive royal authority for an hour along with the Beast;

they are of one mind, and they confer their power and authority upon the Beast.

They will wage war on the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings ??the Lamb and the elect, the chosen, the faithful who are with him."

As for the ten horns you have seen, they and the Beast will hate the harlot, lay her waste, and strip her naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her with fire,

And the kings at the earth who committed vice and wantoned with her shall weep and wail over her, as they watch the smoke of her burning;

for fear of her torture they will stand far off, crying, 'Woe and alas, thou great city! thou strong city of Babylon! In one brief hour thy doom has come.'

as they watched the smoke of her burning, crying, 'What city was like the great City?'

They threw dust on their heads and cried, as they wept and wailed, 'Woe and alas for the great City, where all shipmen made rich profit by her treasures! Gone, gone in one brief hour!'

Again they repeated, "Hallelujah! And the smoke of her goes up for ever and ever!"

And I saw thrones with people sitting on them, who were allowed to judge ??saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and God's word, those who would not worship the Beast or his statue, and who would not receive his mark on their forehead or hand; they came to life and reigned along with the Christ for a thousand years.

As for the rest of the dead, they did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection; over such the second death has no power, they shall be priests of God and the Christ, and reign along with him during the thousand years.

and they swarmed over the broad earth, encircling the leaguer of the saints and the beloved City; but fire descended from heaven and consumed them,

And I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened ??also another book, the book of Life, was opened ??and the dead were judged by what was written in these books, by what they had done.

And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, crying, "Lo, God's dwelling-place is with men, with men will he dwell; they shall be his people, and God will himself be with them:

they will bring to it the glories and treasures of the nations.

they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

Night there shall be none; they need no lamp or sun to shine upon them, for the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign for ever and ever.