1. After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The angels were holding the four winds of the earth. They were stopping the wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.
2. Then I saw another angel coming from the east. This angel had the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels. These were the four angels that God had given power to harm the earth and the sea. He said to the four angels,
3. “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees before we put the sign on the people who serve our God. We must put the sign on their foreheads.”
4. Then I heard how many people were marked with the sign. There were 144,000. They were from every tribe of the people of Israel.