Khải Huyền 8

The seventh seal and the golden censer

¹When he broke the seventh seal, heaven fell silent for about half an hour. ²And I saw the seven angels who stand in God’s presence; they were given seven trumpets.

³Then another angel came, holding a gold censer, and took his place at the altar. Much incense was handed to him, so that he could add it to the prayers of all God’s holy people on the gold altar before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of God’s holy people from the angel’s hand before God. ⁵The angel then took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and flung it onto the earth. Thunder crashed, there were loud sounds and lightning, and the earth shook.

The first four trumpets

⁶Then the seven angels holding the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.

⁷When the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire, mixed with blood, were flung down on the earth. A third of the land was burned up, and a third of the trees, and every green blade of grass.

⁸Then the second angel blew his trumpet. What looked like a great mountain on fire was hurled into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. ⁹Of the creatures living in the sea a third died, and of the ships a third were wrecked.

¹⁰The third angel blew his trumpet, and down from the sky came a huge star, burning like a torch. It landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹The star’s name is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned to wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.

¹²Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet. A blow fell on a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, and a third of their light was darkened: for a third of the day nothing shone, and so too for the night.

¹³Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying high overhead call out in a loud voice: “Woe, woe, woe to those who live on the earth, at the blasts of the trumpets that the three remaining angels are about to blow!”^a