Then I saw another strong messenger coming down out of the sky, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire, and he had a little scroll lying open in his hand. He set his right foot on the sea and his left on the land, and he shouted in a loud voice, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders spoke in voices of their own.

When the seven thunders had spoken I was about to write, and I heard a voice from the sky say: “Seal up what the seven thunders said. Do not write it down.”

Then the messenger I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand towards the sky and swore by the one who lives into the ages — who made the sky and everything in it, and the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it — that there would be no more waiting. In the days when the seventh messenger is about to sound, when he blows his trumpet, God’s secret will be finished — as he announced to his servants the prophets.

And the voice I had heard from the sky spoke to me again: “Go and take the scroll lying open in the hand of the messenger who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the messenger and asked him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”

So I took the little scroll out of the messenger’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey — and when I had eaten it, my stomach turned bitter. And they told me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”