The Proclamation of Cyrus

1 ^aIn the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^bthat the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the ^cGod of heaven, ^dhas given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^ehe has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and ^frebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God ^gwho is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each ^hsurvivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem. 6 And all who were about them aided them with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with beasts, and with costly wares, besides all that was freely offered. 7 Cyrus the king also ⁱbrought out the ^jvessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 8 Cyrus king of Persia brought these out in the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to ^kSheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9 And this was the number of them: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 censers, 10 30 bowls of gold, 410 bowls of silver, and 1,000 other vessels; 11 all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

You Are My Refuge

A Maskil¹ of David, ⁿwhen he was ^oin the cave. A Prayer.

The First Beast

1 And I saw a beast rising ^qout of the sea, with ten horns and ^rseven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was ^slike a leopard; its feet were ^tlike a bear’s, and its mouth was ^ulike a lion’s mouth. And to it the ^vdragon gave his power and ^whis throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth ^xmarveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they ^yworshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ^z“Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

5 And the beast was given ^aa mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for ^bforty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling,¹ that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed ^cto make war on the saints and to ^dconquer them.² And authority was given it over every ^etribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the ^fbook of life of the ^gLamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ^hear, let him hear:

^jHere is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

The Second Beast

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and ^kit spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,³ and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great ^lsigns, even making fire ^mcome down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of⁴ the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not ⁿworship the image of the beast ^oto be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,⁵ to be marked on the right hand or the ^pforehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has ^qthe mark, that is, the name of the beast or ^rthe number of its name. 18 ^sThis calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.⁶

The Lamb and the 144,000

1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the ^tLamb, and with him ^u144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name ^vwritten on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven ^wlike the roar of many waters and ^xlike the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a ^ynew song before the throne and before the ^zfour living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been ^aredeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as ^bfirstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and ^cin their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

The Messages of the Three Angels

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel ^dto proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every ^enation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, ^f“Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, ^g“Fallen, fallen is ^hBabylon the great, she who made all nations drink the ⁱwine of the passion⁷ of her sexual immorality.”

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his ^jforehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the ^kwine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with ^lfire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And ^mthe smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, ⁿday or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives ^othe mark of its name.”

12 ^pHere is a call for the endurance of the saints, ^qthose who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.⁸

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ^r“Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may ^srest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

The Harvest of the Earth

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, ^tand seated on the cloud ^uone like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, ^v“Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great ^wwinepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.⁹