Revelation 6

1I looked on as the Lamb broke open one of the seven seals. One of the four living creatures cried out with a voice like thunder, and I heard it say, “Come!” 2I looked, and I saw a white horse. The one who sat on it carried a bow. A crown was given to him, and out he went, winning victories and set on winning more.

3The Lamb broke the second seal, and I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4Out came another horse, red as fire. The one riding it was permitted to take peace from the earth and to make people slaughter each other, and a great sword was put in his hand.

5The Lamb broke the third seal, and I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there was a black horse, and the one who sat on it had a balance in his hand. 6And I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying: “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!”

7The Lamb broke the fourth seal, and I heard the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8I looked, and I saw a horse the sickly green of a corpse. Death was the name of the one who sat on it, and Hades went along with him. To them was given power over a quarter of the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger, with deadly disease, and by the earth’s wild animals.

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw beneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the sake of the word of God and of the witness they held to. 10They cried out with a loud voice: “Holy and true Master, how long until you judge those who live on the earth and give justice for our blood?” 11A white robe was handed to each of them, and they were told to rest a short time more, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers and sisters was complete, those who were going to be killed as they had been.

12Then I saw him open the sixth seal, and a great earthquake struck. The sun went as black as sackcloth made of hair, the full moon became like blood, 13and the stars in the sky dropped to the earth, the way unripe figs drop from a fig tree when a gale shakes it. 14The sky was torn away like a scroll that rolls itself up, and every mountain and island was shifted out of its place. 15Then the earth’s kings and its high officials, its military commanders, its wealthy and its powerful, and every slave and every free person, went into hiding in the caves and the mountain crags. 16To the mountains and rocks they cry, “Fall on us! Cover us from the sight of the one seated on the throne, and from the Lamb’s wrath! 17For the great day of their wrath is here, and who is able to stand?”