Obadiah 1; Revelation 9

1 This is the vision of Obadiah. This is what the Almighty LORD says about Edom: We have heard a message from the LORD. A messenger was sent among the nations to say, "Get ready! Let's go to war against Edom."

2 "Edom, I will make you the smallest of nations. Others will despise you.

3 Your arrogance has deceived you. You live on rocky cliffs. You make your home up high. You say to yourself, 'No one can bring me down to earth.'

4 Even though you fly high like an eagle and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there," declares the LORD.

5 "If thieves or looters come to you during the night, won't they steal only until they've had enough? You will be ruined! If people come to pick your grapes, won't they leave a few grapes behind?

6 But you, Esau, will lose everything. Even your hidden treasures will be looted.

7 All your allies will force you to leave your land. The people who are at peace with you will deceive you. Those who eat food with you will set traps for you, and you won't even know about it.

8 "On that day I will destroy the wise people in Edom and take wisdom away from Esau's mountain," declares the LORD.

9 "Teman, your warriors will be terrified. Everyone on Esau's mountain will be slaughtered.

10 "Because of the violence you did to Jacob, your relative, you will be covered with shame. You will be destroyed forever.

11 While you stood there doing nothing, strangers carried off Jacob's wealth. Foreigners entered his gates and threw dice for Jerusalem. You acted like one of them.

12 Don't gloat over your relative's misfortune or be happy when the people of Judah are destroyed. Don't brag so much when they're in distress.

13 Don't march through the gates of my people when disaster strikes or gloat over their misery when disaster strikes. Don't take their wealth when disaster strikes.

14 Don't stand at the crossroads to kill their refugees. Don't hand over their survivors when they're in distress.

15 "The day of the LORD is near for all nations. Edom, you will be treated as you have treated others. You will get back what you have given.

16 As you, Israel, drank on my holy mountain, so all nations will drink in turn. They will drink and guzzle down everything in it. They will be like those who have never existed.

17 "But refugees will live on Mount Zion. It will be holy. The descendants of Jacob will get back their possessions.

18 The descendants of Jacob will be like a fire. The descendants of Joseph will be like a flame. But the descendants of Esau will be like straw. They will be burned and destroyed. There will be no one left among the descendants of Esau." The LORD has spoken.

19 "People from the Negev will take possession of Esau's mountain. People from the foothills will take possession of Philistia. They will take possession of the lands of Ephraim and Samaria, and [the descendants of] Benjamin will take possession of Gilead.

20 Exiles from Israel will take possession of Canaan. They will possess land as far as Zarephath. Exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will take possession of the cities in the Negev.

21 Those who are victorious will come from Mount Zion to rule Esau's mountain. The kingdom will belong to the LORD."

1 When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky. The star was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

2 It opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and smoke came out of the shaft like the smoke from a large furnace. The smoke darkened the sun and the air.

3 Locusts came out of the smoke onto the earth, and they were given power like the power of earthly scorpions.

4 They were told not to harm any grass, green plant, or tree on the earth. They could harm only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5 They were not allowed to kill them. They were only allowed to torture them for five months. Their torture was like the pain of a scorpion's sting.

6 At that time people will look for death and never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They seemed to have crowns that looked like gold on their heads. Their faces were like human faces.

8 They had hair like women's hair and teeth like lions' teeth.

9 They had breastplates like iron. The noise from their wings was like the roar of chariots with many horses rushing into battle.

10 They had tails and stingers like scorpions. They had the power to hurt people with their tails for five months.

11 The king who ruled them was the angel from the bottomless pit. In Hebrew he is called Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

12 The first catastrophe is over. After these things there are two more catastrophes yet to come.

13 When the sixth angel blew his trumpet, I heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar in front of God.

14 The voice said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are held at the great Euphrates River."

15 The four angels who were ready for that hour, day, month, and year were released to kill one-third of humanity.

16 The soldiers on horses numbered 20,000 times 10,000. I heard how many there were.

17 In the vision that I had, the horses and their riders looked like this: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, pale blue, and yellow. The horses had heads like lions. Fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths.

18 These three plagues--the fire, smoke, and sulfur which came out of their mouths--killed one-third of humanity.

19 The power of these horses is in their mouths and their tails. (Their tails have heads like snakes which they use to hurt people.)

20 The people who survived these plagues still did not turn to me and change the way they were thinking and acting. If they had, they would have stopped worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.

21 They did not turn away from committing murder, practicing witchcraft, sinning sexually, or stealing.