^6:10 And they cried out with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

and they cried out with a loud voice, saying

These are those souls under the alter in verse 9 who were killed for the Word and their testimony.

"How long, O LORD,

This term, O LORD, denotes the Soverign Lord

• as in Master/Slave relationship that honors the Master (1 Timothy 6:1-2) and is submissive (1 Peter 2:18-20); this results in favor.
• as in God, the Great Creator (Acts 4:23-26).
• as in Jesus Christ who constantly is denied (2 Peter 2:1-3) even unto the "last days" (Jude 4).

holy and true,

This is the same description of Jesus given by the angel to the church in Philadelphia, Revelation 3:7.

wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

This is not earthly hateful revenge. These souls are in heaven, pure and bought, BUT God's righteousness demands evil to be judged.

• Romans 12:18-19
• Luke 18:1-8
• 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8-10

The curious thing about this portion is that, even in heaven, the souls do NOT know when God will perform this vengence. This is to say, both heaven occupants and earth occupants do NOT know when these seals will be broken. We do know, however, that God's timing is always perfect!