Revelation 10

¹ Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire.

² In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land

³ and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring. At this, seven claps of thunder made themselves heard

⁴ and when the seven thunderclaps had spoken, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, ‘Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down’.

⁵ Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven,[*a]

⁶ and swore by the One who lives for ever and ever, and made heaven and all that is in it, and earth and all it bears, and the sea and all it holds,[*b] ‘The time of waiting is over;

⁷ at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, God’s secret intention will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the Good News told to his servants the prophets’.

⁸ Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. ‘Go,’ it said ‘and take that open scroll out of the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’

⁹ I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, ‘Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey’.

¹⁰ So I took it out of the angel’s hand, and swallowed it; it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour.

¹¹ Then I was told, ‘You are to prophesy again, this time about many different nations and countries and languages and emperors’.