Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageSo I went to the angel and asked him for the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it entirely. It will be bitter in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GSo I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and devour it whole. It will make your belly bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey."
KJV
King James VersionAnd I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleAnd I went to the angel and said, “Give me the small scroll.” “Take it and eat it,” he said. “It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”
Footnotes
κατάφαγε (kataphage) = "devour completely" — more forceful than the simple "eat" of the Ezekiel parallel (Ezek 3:1-3). κοιλίαν = belly/stomach, but in the Hebrew imagination (בֶּטֶן, beten) also connotes the deep inner self where truth is internalised — hence The F.O.G's "belly" over the more clinical "stomach." The eating-the-scroll scene consciously recalls both Ezek 3:1-3 and Jer 15:16. Crucially, John's experience inverts Ezekiel's: Ezekiel found the scroll sweet throughout; John tastes sweetness then bitterness — signalling that this prophetic commission carries more judgement than Ezekiel's inaugural call.