Obadiah 1; Revelation 9

1 This is the vision of Obadiah. We have heard a message from the Lord. A messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, "Attack! Let's go attack Edom!"

2 "Soon I will make you the smallest of nations. You will be greatly hated by everyone.

3 Your pride has fooled you, you who live in the hollow places of the cliff. Your home is up high, you who say to yourself, 'No one can bring me down to the ground.'

4 Even if you fly high like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says the Lord.

5 "You will really be ruined! If thieves came to you, if robbers came by night, they would steal only enough for themselves. If workers came and picked the grapes from your vines, they would leave a few behind.

6 But you, Edom, will really lose everything! People will find all your hidden treasures!

7 All the people who are your friends will force you out of the land. The people who are at peace with you will trick you and defeat you. Those who eat your bread with you now are planning a trap for you, and you will not notice it."

8 The Lord says, "On that day I will surely destroy the wise people from Edom, and those with understanding from the mountains of Edom.

9 Then, city of Teman, your best warriors will be afraid, and everyone from the mountains of Edom will be killed.

10 You did violence to your relatives, the Israelites, so you will be covered with shame and destroyed forever.

11 You stood aside without helping while strangers carried Israel's treasures away. and threw lots to decide what part of Jerusalem they would take, you were like one of them.

12 "Edom, do not laugh at your brother Israel in his time of trouble or be happy about the people of Judah when they are destroyed. Do not brag when cruel things are done to them.

13 Do not enter the city gate of my people in their time of trouble or laugh at their problems in their time of trouble. Do not take their treasures in their time of trouble.

14 Do not stand at the crossroads to destroy those who are trying to escape. Do not capture those who escape alive and turn them over to their enemy in their time of trouble.

15 "The Lord's day of judging is coming soon to all the nations. The same evil things you did to other people will happen to you; they will come back upon your own head.

16 Because you drank in my Temple, all the nations will drink on and on. They will drink and drink until they disappear.

17 But on Mount Zion some will escape the judgment, and it will be a holy place. from those who took it from them.

18 The people of Jacob will be like a fire and the people of Josephn like a flame. But the people of Esaun will be like dry stalks. The people of Jacob will set them on fire and burn them up. There will be no one left of the people of Esau." This will happen because the Lord has said it.

19 Then God's people will regain southern Judah from Edom; they will take back the mountains of Edom. They will take back the western hills from the Philistines. They will regain the lands of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will take over Gilead.

20 People from Israel who once were forced to leave their homes will take the land of the Canaanites, all the way to Zarephath. in Sepharad will take back the cities of southern Judah.

21 Powerful warriors will go up on Mount Zion, where they will rule the people living on Edom's mountains. And the kingdom will belong to the Lord.

1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fall from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the deep hole that leads to the bottomless pit.

2 Then it opened up the hole that leads to the bottomless pit, and smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. Then the sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole.

3 Then locusts came down to the earth out of the smoke, and they were given the power to sting like scorpions.

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

5 These locusts were not given the power to kill anyone, but to cause pain to the people for five months. And the pain they felt was like the pain a scorpion gives when it stings someone.

6 During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will run away from them.

7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces looked like human faces.

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

9 Their chests looked like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horses and chariots hurrying into battle.

10 The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions, and in their tails was their power to hurt people for five months.

11 The locusts had a king who was the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in the Hebrew language is Abaddon and in the Greek language is Apollyon.

12 The first trouble is past; there are still two other troubles that will come.

13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God.

14 The voice said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Free the four angels who are tied at the great river Euphrates."

15 And they let loose the four angels who had been kept ready for this hour and day and month and year so they could kill a third of all people on the earth.

16 I heard how many troops on horses were in their army -- two hundred million.

17 The horses and their riders I saw in the vision looked like this: They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions, with fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths.

18 A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three terrible disasters coming out of the horses' mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur.

19 The horses' power was in their mouths and in their tails; their tails were like snakes with heads, and with them they hurt people.

20 The other people who were not killed by these terrible disasters still did not change their hearts and turn away from what they had made with their own hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood -- things that cannot see or hear or walk.

21 These people did not change their hearts and turn away from murder or evil magic, from their sexual sins or stealing.