Revelation 9

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.^t The star was given the key^u to the shaft of the Abyss.^v When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.^w The sun and sky were darkened^x by the smoke from the Abyss.^y And out of the smoke locusts^z came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions^a of the earth. They were told not to harm^b the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^c but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^d They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^e And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^f when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.^g

The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.^h On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.ⁱ Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.^j They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.^k They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.^l They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss,^m whose name in Hebrewⁿ is Abaddon^o and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.^p

The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns^q of the golden altar that is before God.^r It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels^s who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”^t And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released^u to kill a third^v of the world’s people.^w The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.^x

The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths^y came fire, smoke and sulfur.^z A third^a of the people were killed^b by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur^c that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

The rest of the people who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent^d of the work of their hands;^e they did not stop worshiping demons,^f and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.^g Nor did they repent^h of their murders, their magic arts,ⁱ their sexual immorality^j or their thefts.