Revelation 8

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, everything in heaven went silent for about half an hour.

1And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

NoteThe seventh seal is the last of seven wax seals on the scroll John saw earlier, in chapter 5. In the Roman world an important document was rolled up and closed with blobs of wax stamped with a signet ring, and breaking them was the act that gave access to the contents. Each seal broken releases what follows.

2Then I saw the seven angels who stand in God's presence, and seven trumpets were given to them.

2And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

Note"Stood before God" is court language: these are attendants who hold a standing position in the royal presence, like courtiers permanently on duty. Jewish writing of this period speaks of seven such angels of the presence; the book of Tobit names Raphael as one of the seven. The trumpets are signal instruments, not musical ones. Straight metal trumpets and rams' horns were blown to call an assembly, raise an alarm, signal a battle, or announce the arrival of a ruler.

3Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer, a bowl for burning incense. He was given a large amount of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all God's people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.

3And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

NoteThe King James "saints" does not mean a special class of unusually holy people, still less people formally canonized by a church. The Greek word means those set apart as God's, that is, all believers. The "golden altar" is a particular piece of temple furniture. The sanctuary had two altars: a large bronze one out in the courtyard where animals were burned, and a small gold-plated one inside, standing in front of the curtain that screened the innermost room. Only incense was burned on the golden one.

4The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God's people, rose up from the angel's hand into God's presence.

4And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

NoteRising incense smoke was a standard image for prayer going up to God: "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense" (Psalm 141:2). Here the smoke and the prayers rise together.

5Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it down onto the earth. There were voices, thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

5And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

NoteThe King James "voices" translates a Greek word for sounds or noises in general; here it means crashes and rumblings rather than anyone speaking. Thunder, lightning, and earthquake together were the standard way of describing God's presence breaking into view, as at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19.

6Then the seven angels who held the seven trumpets got ready to blow them.

6And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

7The first angel blew his trumpet. Hail and fire mixed with blood came down and were thrown onto the earth. A third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

7The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

NoteHail and fire falling together recalls the seventh plague on Egypt, where fire ran along the ground with the hail (Exodus 9:23-24). The first four trumpets all echo the Egyptian plagues: hail and fire, water turned to blood, undrinkable water, darkness. Some ancient manuscripts also say that a third of the earth was burned up; the manuscripts behind the King James lack that line, which is why it does not appear here.

8The second angel blew his trumpet. Something that looked like a huge mountain on fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea turned into blood.

8And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;

Note"As it were" in the King James means "what looked like." John is reporting what the thing resembled, not naming what it was.

9A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

9And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

10The third angel blew his trumpet. A great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs where water comes out of the ground.

10And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

NoteThe King James "lamp" here means a torch, an open flame carried in the hand, not a small dish of oil with a wick. "Star" in ancient usage covered anything bright moving in the sky, including meteors and comets.

11The star is named Wormwood. A third of the water turned bitter like wormwood, and many people died from drinking that water, because it had been made bitter.

11And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

NoteWormwood is a real plant, a shrub of the Artemisia family with an intensely bitter taste. In the Hebrew scriptures its name had become proverbial for bitterness and for poisoned or ruined water; Jeremiah pairs it with "water of gall" (Jeremiah 9:15, 23:15). The plant itself is bitter rather than deadly, so naming the poisoned water after it takes a familiar figure of speech to an extreme.

12The fourth angel blew his trumpet. A third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light went dark. For a third of the day there was no daylight, and the same was true for the night.

12And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

NoteThe last part of this verse is genuinely ambiguous in the Greek. It can mean that a third of the daylight hours were blacked out entirely, or that the light was dimmed by a third throughout the day, and the same for the night. Translators divide over which sense is meant.

13Then I looked, and I heard an angel flying high across the middle of the sky, calling out in a loud voice, "Terrible trouble, terrible trouble, terrible trouble is coming on the people who live on the earth, because of the trumpet blasts that the other three angels are about to sound!"

13And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

NoteThe oldest surviving manuscripts read "eagle" here, while the later manuscripts behind the King James read "angel." The two words are close in Greek: aetos and angelos. "The midst of heaven" means mid-heaven, the highest point of the sky where the sun stands at noon, so the flying creature is visible and audible to everyone at once. "Woe" is not a curse laid on anyone but a cry of alarm and grief, the sound a mourner or a prophet makes over a disaster on its way.