< Revelation 14 >
1 Then, in my vision, I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion. With him were a hundred and forty-four thousand, with his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a loud peal of thunder; the sound that I heard was like the music of harpers playing on their harps.
3 They are singing what seems to be a new song, before the throne, and before the four creatures and the elders; and no one was able to learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from earth.
4 These are the men who never defiled themselves in their intercourse with women; they are as pure as virgins. These are the men who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed as the first-fruits of mankind for God and for the Lamb.
5 No lie was ever heard on their lips. They are beyond reach of blame.
6 Then I saw another angel, flying in mid-heaven. He had the good news, decreed from eternity, to announce to those who live on the earth – to men of every nation, and tribe, and language, and people; (aiōnios )
7 and he cried in a loud voice – “Reverence God, and give him praise (for the hour of his judgment has come) and worship him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all springs of water.”
8 Then a second angel followed, crying – “She has fallen! She has fallen – Babylon the Great, who has made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her licentiousness!”
9 Then a third angel followed them, crying in a loud voice – “Whoever worships the Beast and its image, and receives its brand on his forehead or on his hand,
10 that person will drink the maddening wine of God that has been poured unmixed into the cup of his wrath, and they will be tortured with fire and sulphur before the eyes of the holy angels and before the eyes of the Lamb.
11 The smoke from their torture rises for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night – those who worship the Beast and its image, and all who are branded with its name.” (aiōn )
12 (Here there is need for endurance on the part of Christ’s people – those who lay to heart the commands of God and the faith of Jesus.)
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who from this hour die in union with the Lord.’” ‘Yes,’ answers the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their toil. Their good deeds go with them.’
14 Then, in my vision, I saw a white cloud, and on the cloud there was sitting one like a man. On his head he had a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
15 Then another angel came out from the Temple, crying in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud – “Take your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come; the Harvest of Earth is ready.”
16 He who was sitting on the cloud brought his sickle down on the earth, and the Harvest of Earth was reaped.
17 Then another angel came out of the Temple in heaven; he, also, had a sharp sickle.
18 Then another angel came out of the altar; he had power over fire, and he called in a loud voice to the angel that had the sharp sickle – “Take your sharp sickle, and gather the bunches from the vine of Earth, for its grapes are ripe.”
19 The angel brought his sickle down on the earth and gathered the fruit of the vine of Earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 The grapes were trodden in the press outside the city; and blood came out of the press, rising as high as the bridles of the horses for a distance of two hundred miles.
