I saw, too, an angel come down from heaven, with the key of the abyss in his hand, and a great chain.

He made prisoner of the dragon, serpent of the primal age, whom we call the devil, or Satan, and put him in bonds for a thousand years,

thrusting him down to the abyss and locking him in there, and setting a seal over him. He was not to delude the world any more until the thousand years were over; then, for a short time, he is to be released.

Then I saw thrones prepared for those to whom judgement was committed; I saw the souls of all those who went to execution for love of the truth concerning Jesus, and of God’s word, and all who would not worship the beast, or its image, or bear its mark on their foreheads and their hands. These were endowed with life, and reigned as kings with Christ for a thousand years;

but the rest of the dead remained lifeless while the thousand years lasted. Such is the first resurrection.✻

Blessed and holy is his lot who has a share in this first resurrection; over such the second death has no power, they will be priests of God, priests of Christ; all those thousand years they will reign with him.

Then, when the thousand years are over, Satan will be let loose from his prison, and will go out to seduce the nations that live at the four corners of the earth—that is the meaning of Gog and Magog—and muster them for battle, countless as the sand by the sea.✻

They came up across the whole breadth of the earth, and beleaguered the encampment of the saints, and the beloved city.

But God sent fire from heaven to consume them, and the devil, their seducer, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where, like himself, the beast

and the false prophet will be tormented day and night eternally.

And now I saw a great throne, all white, and one sitting on it, at whose glance earth and heaven vanished, and were found no more.

Before this throne, in my vision, the dead must come, great and little alike; and the books were opened. Another book, too, was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged by their deeds, as the books recorded them.

The sea, too, gave up the dead that lay there, and death and hell gave up the dead they imprisoned, and each man was judged according to his deeds,

while death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death;

everyone must be thrown into this lake of fire, unless his name was found written in the book of life.