Revelation 8King James Version
The seventh seal. Silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Seven angels with seven trumpets. Hail and fire mingled with blood. The third part of the trees burnt up. A great mountain burning with fire cast into the sea. A star called Wormwood falls. The third part of the sun, the moon, and the stars darkened.
The seventh seal opens to half an hour of silence in heaven. Seven angels receive seven trumpets. An angel burns incense at the golden altar, and the smoke rises with the saints' prayers before God. The angel then fills the censer with fire and throws it to earth, causing thunder, lightning, and earthquake. The first four trumpets sound: a third of the earth and trees burn, a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of the fresh waters turn bitter (a star called Wormwood), and a third of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened. An eagle announces three more woes coming.
The silence that opens the seventh seal suggests that the prayers of persecuted saints have been heard, and what follows is the answer arriving in stages.
4: "And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." The trumpet judgments follow directly from this image: the prayers of suffering people have reached the throne, and the censer of fire thrown to earth is somehow linked to that offering.
The half-hour of silence before the trumpets is striking in a book that has not stopped with sound. The whole of creation goes quiet. Commentators have described it as the silence of anticipation or the silence of a court before a verdict. Whatever it means, it is heavy with weight before the first trumpet even sounds.
The seven angels with trumpets; the angel at the golden altar who burns the incense; the eagle or angel announcing woe, woe, woe for the three remaining trumpets.
The trumpet sequence echoes the plagues of Egypt, but each affects a third rather than everything, suggesting warnings or partial judgments rather than final ones. Wormwood, the bitter star, takes its name from a bitter plant used in the Old Testament as a symbol of God's judgment on unfaithfulness. The poisoning of fresh water is specifically catastrophic in a region that depended on rivers and wells.
For when your prayers have felt like they disappeared into the air with no reply. The image of incense smoke rising from those prayers before the throne makes a stark claim: every prayer offered under pressure has arrived somewhere, and something is happening because of them.
1And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
2And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
5And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
6And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
8And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
12And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!