Revelation 9

1When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, and to him was given the key to the shaft that leads down into the abyss. 2He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke rose from it like smoke from a huge furnace; the sun and the air grew dark with the smoke from the shaft. 3From the smoke locusts swarmed out over the earth, and they were given the kind of power scorpions have. 4Their orders were to leave alone the earth’s grass, every green plant, and every tree, and to harm only the people without the seal of God on their foreheads. 5Killing them was not permitted; the locusts could only torment them for five months, and the pain they caused was like the pain of a scorpion’s sting on a person. 6During those days people will search for death, but it will not be found; they will want to die, and death will keep fleeing from them.

7In shape the locusts were like horses made ready for war. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces were like the faces of human beings. 8Their hair was like a woman’s hair, their teeth like a lion’s. 9Their chests were armored as if with iron breastplates, and their wings made a noise like chariots and many horses charging into battle. 10Like scorpions they have tails with stings, and it is with their tails that they have power to harm people for five months. 11Over them they have a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

12The first woe is over. Look: two woes are still to come after this.

13Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice from the horns of the gold altar that stands before God. 14It said to the sixth angel, who held the trumpet, “Set free the four angels who are held bound beside the great river, the Euphrates.” 15The four angels were set loose. They had been made ready for that hour, that day, month, and year, to kill a third of humankind. 16Their mounted armies numbered 200,000,000; I heard the count. 17This is how I saw the horses and their riders in my vision. The riders wore breastplates the colors of fire, of dark blue hyacinth, and of yellow sulfur. The horses’ heads were like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur poured from their mouths. 18These three plagues, the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur coming out of their mouths, killed a third of humankind. 19It is in their mouths that the horses’ power lies, and in their tails too, for their tails are like snakes with heads, and with these they wound.

20Yet the rest of humankind, who survived these plagues, did not repent and turn from the things their own hands had made: they went on worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood that have no power to see or hear or walk. 21There was no repentance for their murders or their sorcery, for their sexual immorality or their stealing.