This was another great portent I saw in heaven, and a strange one; seven angels, the bearers of seven plagues, those last plagues by which the vengeance of God is finally achieved.

I saw, too, what might have been a sea of glass, tinged with fire. And by this sea of glass the victors were standing, safe now from the beast, and his image, and the mark of his name, with harps of God’s fashioning.

Theirs is the song of God’s servant Moses, theirs is the song of the Lamb. Lord God almighty, they cry, the deeds thou doest are great and wonderful; King of all the ages, thy ways are just and true.✻

Lord, who alone art holy, who shall refuse reverence and glory to thy name? All the nations shall come and fall down before thee, now that thy just retribution has been made known.

Then, as I looked, the tabernacle that bears record in heaven opened its inner shrine,

and the seven angels who bear the seven plagues came out of the shrine, clad in pure white linen, with golden girdles at their breasts.

And one of the four living figures gave to these seven angels seven golden cups, filled with the vengeance of God, who lives for ever and ever.

Meanwhile, God’s majesty and power filled the whole shrine with smoke, so that none could enter the shrine until the plagues borne by the seven angels had run their course.