Look at ships too; for all their size and speed under stiff winds, they are turned by a tiny rudder wherever the mind of the steersman chooses.

the Spirit of messiah within them foretold all the suffering of messiah and his after-glory, and they pondered when or how this was to come;

to them it was revealed that they got this intelligence not for themselves but for you, regarding all that has now been disclosed to you by those who preached the gospel to you through the holy Spirit sent from heaven. The very angels long to get a glimpse of this!

a stone over which men stumble and a rock of offence; they stumble over it in their disobedience to God's word. Such is their appointed doom.

Conduct yourselves properly before pagans; so that for all their slander of you as bad characters, they may come to glorify God when you are put upon your trial, by what they see of your good deeds.

when they see how chaste and reverent you are.

It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God adorned themselves. They were submissive to their husbands.

In the same way you husbands must be considerate in living with your wives, since they are the weaker sex; you must honour them as heirs equally with yourselves of the grace of Life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

and it astonishes them that you will not plunge with them still into the same flood of profligacy. They abuse you,

but they will have to answer for that to Him who is prepared to judge the living and the dead

(for this was why the gospel was preached to the dead as well, that while they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live as God lives in the spirit).

So let those who are suffering by the will of God trust their souls to him, their faithful Creator, as they continue to do right.

For as these qualities exist and increase with you, they render you active and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves,

in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments ??men whose doom comes apace from of old, and destruction is awake upon their trail.

particularly those who fall in with the polluting appetite of the flesh and despise the Powers celestial. Daring, presumptuous creatures! they are not afraid to scoff at the angelic Glories;

But those people! ??like irrational animals, creatures of mere instinct, born for capture and corruption, they scoff at what they are ignorant of; and like animals they will suffer corruption and ruin,

done out of the profits of their evil-doing. Pleasure for them is revelling in open daylight ??spots and blots, with their dissipated revelling, as they carouse in your midst! ??14 their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation!

they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing ??16 but he got reproved for his malpractice: a dumb ass spoke with human voice and checked the prophet's infatuation.

By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct ??19 promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him).

After escaping the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if they get entangled and overpowered again, the last state is worse for them than the first.

Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them.

They verify the truth of the proverb: "The dog turns back to what he has vomited, the sow when washed will wallow in the mire."

asking, "Where is His promised advent? Since the day our fathers fell asleep, things remain exactly as they were from the beginning of creation."

They wilfully ignore the fact that heavens existed long ago, and an earth which the word of God formed of water and by water.

speaking of this as he has done in all his letters ??letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction.

They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.

Anyone who is born of God does not commit sin, for the offspring of God remain in Him, and they cannot sin, because they are born of God.

Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see if they come from God; for many false prophets have emerged in the world.

They belong to the world, therefore they speak as inspired by the world, and the world listens to them:

they have testified to your love before the church. Pray speed them on their journey worthily of God;

they have started out for his sake and declined to take anything from pagans;

while the angels who abandoned their own domain, instead of preserving their proper rank, are reserved by him within the nether gloom, in chains eternal, for the doom of the great Day ??7 just as Sodom and Gomorra and the adjacent cities, which similarly glutted themselves with vice and sensual perversity, are exhibited as a warning of the everlasting fire they are sentenced to suffer.

But these people scoff at anything they do not understand; and whatever they do understand, like irrational animals, by mere instinct, that proves their ruin.

Woe to them! they go the road of Cain, rush into Balaam's error for what it brings them, and perish in Korah's rebellion.

These people are stains on your love-feasts; they have no qualms about carousing in your midst, they look after none but themselves ??rainless clouds, swept along by the wind, trees in autumn without fruit, doubly dead and so uprooted,

to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the impious of all the impious deeds they have committed, and of all the harsh things said against him by impious sinners.

For these people are murmurers, grumbling at their lot in life ??they fall in with their own passions, their talk is arrogant, they pay court to men to benefit themselves.

they told you beforehand, "At the end of things there will be mockers who go by their own impious passions."

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.