Proverbs 10

Proverbs of Solomon

 ¹ The proverbs of Solomon:
       A wise son brings joy to his father,
       but a foolish son grief to his mother.

 ² Ill-gotten treasures are of no value,
       but righteousness delivers from death.

 ³ The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry
       but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

 ⁴ Lazy hands make a man poor,
       but diligent hands bring wealth.

 ⁵ He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,
       but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

 ⁶ Blessings crown the head of the righteous,
       but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. ^[a]

 ⁷ The memory of the righteous will be a blessing,
       but the name of the wicked will rot.

 ⁸ The wise in heart accept commands,
       but a chattering fool comes to ruin.

 ⁹ The man of integrity walks securely,
       but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

 ¹⁰ He who winks maliciously causes grief,
       and a chattering fool comes to ruin.

 ¹¹ The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,
       but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

 ¹² Hatred stirs up dissension,
       but love covers over all wrongs.

 ¹³ Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,
       but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

 ¹⁴ Wise men store up knowledge,
       but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

 ¹⁵ The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,
       but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

 ¹⁶ The wages of the righteous bring them life,
       but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.

 ¹⁷ He who heeds discipline shows the way to life,
       but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

 ¹⁸ He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,
       and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

 ¹⁹ When words are many, sin is not absent,
       but he who holds his tongue is wise.

 ²⁰ The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,
       but the heart of the wicked is of little value.

 ²¹ The lips of the righteous nourish many,
       but fools die for lack of judgment.

 ²² The blessing of the LORD brings wealth,
       and he adds no trouble to it.

 ²³ A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct,
       but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.

 ²⁴ What the wicked dreads will overtake him;
       what the righteous desire will be granted.

 ²⁵ When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone,
       but the righteous stand firm forever.

 ²⁶ As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
       so is a sluggard to those who send him.

 ²⁷ The fear of the LORD adds length to life,
       but the years of the wicked are cut short.

 ²⁸ The prospect of the righteous is joy,
       but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

 ²⁹ The way of the LORD is a refuge for the righteous,
       but it is the ruin of those who do evil.

 ³⁰ The righteous will never be uprooted,
       but the wicked will not remain in the land.

 ³¹ The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom,
       but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

 ³² The lips of the righteous know what is fitting,
       but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse.

Revelation 8

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

 ¹When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

 ²And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

 ³Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. ⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

The Trumpets

 ⁶Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

 ⁷The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

 ⁸The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

 ¹⁰The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹the name of the star is Wormwood.^[a] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

 ¹²The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

 ¹³As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

Revelation 9

 ¹The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. ²When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. ³And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. ⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. ⁶During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

 ⁷The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. ⁸Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. ⁹They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. ¹¹They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.^[a]

 ¹²The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

 ¹³The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns^[b] of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." ¹⁵And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.

 ¹⁷The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. ¹⁸A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

 ²⁰The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.