Then they were each given a white robe; and they were told to rest and wait quietly for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed.

They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but [to hurt] only the people who do not have the seal (mark of ownership, protection) of God on their foreheads.

Then there was given to me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar [of incense], and [count] those who worship in it.

And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time [of their fulfillment] is near.