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1 When the Lamb broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
“And They Were Given Seven Trumpets”
2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand in the very presence of God, and they were given seven trumpets.
3 Then another angel went and stood in front of the altar, holding a handled bowl made of gold, an incense-burner. He was given a large amount of incense so that he could offer it, together with the prayers of each and every one of the Lord’s holy people, on the gold altar in front of the throne.
4 The smoke of the burning incense, along with the prayers of the Lord’s holy people,+ went up from the incense burner in the angel’s hand to the presence of God.
5 Then the angel took the incense burner and filled it with burning coals from the altar and hurled them toward the earth, and there were peals of thunder and rumblings and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
6 And the seven angels who were holding the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and hailstones and fire appeared, mixed with blood, and were hurled at the earth, and a third of the earth was pummeled by fire; throughout this third, fire devoured all the trees, and burned up, too, all the vegetation.
8 Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and there was hurled into the sea something that looked like a huge mountain ablaze with fire. A third of the sea turned into blood,
9 and all the sea creatures in those waters died. Completely destroyed, too, in that third, were all the ships.
10 Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and there fell from heaven a large star, blazing like a torch. It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
11 The name of the star was “Wormwood,” and all the waters on which it fell became as bitter as the wormwood plant. Many people died from drinking the poisonous waters.
12 Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, as was a third of the moon and a third of the stars. As a result, their brightness was reduced by a third,+ and a third of the day was without light, and likewise a third of the night.
13 As I watched, I heard an eagle shout a message as it flew high in the sky. “Woe! Woe! Woe!” the eagle cried out. “How great the calamity to come upon the inhabitants of the earth! For the last three angels are about to blow their trumpets!”