Obadiah 1; Revelation 9

1 The vision of Obadiah. The LORD God proclaims concerning Edom: We have heard a message from the LORD— a messenger has been sent among the nations: "Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!"

2 Look now, I will make you of little importance among the nations; you will be totally despised.

3 Your proud heart has tricked you— you who live in the cracks of the rock, whose dwelling is high above. You who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?"

4 Though you soar like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there, says the LORD.

5 If thieves approach you, if robbers by night—how you've been devastated!— wouldn't they steal only what they wanted? If those who gather grapes came to you, wouldn't they leave some grapes?

6 How Esau has been looted, his treasures taken away!

7 All those who were your allies have driven you to the border. Those who were on your side tricked you and triumphed over you. They are setting your own bread as a trap under you, but you don't see it coming.

8 Won't I on that day, says the LORD, destroy the wise from Edom and understanding from Mount Esau?

9 Your warriors will be shattered, Teman, and everyone from Mount Esau will be eliminated.

10 Because of the slaughter and violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be destroyed forever.

11 You stood nearby, strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem; you too were like one of them.

12 But you should have taken no pleasure over your brother on the day of his misery; you shouldn't have rejoiced over the people of Judah on the day of their devastation; you shouldn't have bragged on their day of hardship.

13 You shouldn't have entered the gate of my people on the day of their defeat; you shouldn't have even looked on his suffering on the day of his disaster; you shouldn't have stolen his possessions on the day of his distress.

14 You shouldn't have waited on the roads to destroy his escapees; you shouldn't have handed over his survivors on the day of defeat.

15 The day of the LORD is near against all the nations. As you have done, so it will be done to you; your actions will make you suffer!

16 Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations around you drink; they will drink and swallow quickly, and they will be like they've never been before.

17 But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, and it will be holy; and the house of Jacob will drive out those who drove them out.

18 The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau straw; they will burn them up completely, and there will be no one left of the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken.

19 Those of the arid southern plain will possess Mount Esau, and those of the western foothills, the land of the Philistines; they will possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 Those who remain of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and those left from Jerusalem and who are now living in Sepharad will possess the cities of the arid southern plain.

21 The deliverers will go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom will be the LORD's.

1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss.

2 He opened the shaft of the abyss; and smoke rose up from the shaft, like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.

3 Then locusts came forth from the smoke and onto the earth. They were given power like the power that scorpions have on the earth.

4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree. They could only hurt the people who didn't have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5 The locusts weren't allowed to kill them, but only to make them suffer for five months—and the suffering they inflict is like that of a scorpion when it strikes a person.

6 In those days people will seek death, but they won't find it. They will want to die, but death will run away from them.

7 The locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads were what seemed to be gold crowns. Their faces were like human faces,

8 their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.

9 In front they had what seemed to be iron armor upon their chests, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots and horses racing into battle.

10 They also have tails with stingers, just like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months.

11 Their king is an angel from the abyss, whose Hebrew name is Abaddon, and whose Greek name is Apollyon.

12 The first horror has passed. Look! Two horrors are still coming after this.

13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar that is before God.

14 It said to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

15 Then the four angels who had been made ready for that hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of humankind.

16 The number of cavalry troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.

17 And this is the way I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: they had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.

18 By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed: by the fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths.

19 The horses' power is in their mouths and their tails, for their tails are like snakes with heads that inflict injuries.

20 The rest of humankind, who weren't killed by these plagues, didn't change their hearts and lives and turn from their handiwork. They didn't stop worshipping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can't see or hear or walk.

21 They didn't turn away from their murders, their spells and drugs, their sexual immorality, or their stealing.