The New Testament

The New TestamentRevelation

Revelation 10

1I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2He held an open little scroll in his hand. He set his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth, 3and cried out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders spoke with their own voices. 4When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders spoke, and do not write it.”

5The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth raised his right hand to heaven 6and swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay. 7But in the days of the seventh angel's voice, when he is about to sound his trumpet, God's mystery will be completed, just as he announced the good news to his own slaves the prophets.”

8The voice I had heard from heaven spoke with me again and said, “Go, take the open scroll in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the earth.” 9I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He says to me, “Take it and eat it up. It will make your belly bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it up. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my belly turned bitter. 11They say to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

Translation notes 3

10:1–4 — Angel and thunders. The majestic appearance does not change the source's designation “another mighty angel” into an explicit identification with Christ. The seven thunders' message is withheld; it is not reconstructed in this translation.

10:6–7 — Delay and completion. Literally, “time will no longer be.” The following reference to the seventh trumpet favors no further delay, rather than the abolition of time itself. “Will be completed” renders a Greek past-tense form that presents the promised completion as accomplished in the future scene.

10:8–11 — Eating and speaking. The source alternates “scroll” and “little scroll.” Eating the prophetic message recalls Ezekiel 2–3; sweetness and bitterness remain bodily images. The last verse says “they say,” without identifying its plural speakers. “About” may also be understood as “over” or “against” the peoples and kings.