Chapter 10

1Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. A cloud wrapped around him, and a rainbow was over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire.

2He held a small open scroll in his hand. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

3He shouted in a loud voice, like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the seven thunders answered with voices of their own.

4When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write down what they said. But I heard a voice from heaven say, “Keep what the seven thunders said sealed up. Do not write it down.”

5Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand toward heaven.

6He 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. The angel declared, “There will be no more delay.

7But when the seventh angel is about to blow his trumpet, God’s hidden plan will be completed, just as God announced as good news to his servants the prophets.”

8Then the voice I had heard from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the land.”

9So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll. He told me, “Take it and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”

10I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. In my mouth it tasted as sweet as honey, but after I ate it, my stomach turned bitter.

11Then they told me, “You must once again speak God’s message about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”