Revelation 9

¹Then the fifth angel sounded [his] trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss.

²[The star] opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of [it] like [the] smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

³And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like [that of] the scorpions of the earth.

⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth [or] any plant [or] tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on [their] foreheads.

⁵[The locusts] were not given power to kill them, but only to torment [them] [for] five months, and their torment [was] like the stinging of a scorpion.

⁶In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, [but] death will escape them.

⁷And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, [with something] like crowns of gold on their heads; and their faces [were] like [the] faces of men.

⁸They had hair like [that] of women, and teeth like [those] of lions.

⁹They also had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings [was] like [the] roar of many horses [and] chariots rushing into battle.

¹⁰They had tails with stingers like scorpions, [which] had the power to injure people for five months.

¹¹They were ruled by a king, the angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew [is] Abaddon, and in Greek [it is] Apollyon.

¹²The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes [are] still to follow.

¹³Then the sixth angel sounded [his] trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God

¹⁴saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

¹⁵[So] the four angels who had been prepared for [this] hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

¹⁶And the number of mounted troops [was] two hundred million; I heard their number.

¹⁷[Now] the horses and riders in [my] vision looked like this: [The riders] had breastplates [the colors of] fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses [were] like [the] heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur.

¹⁸A third of mankind was killed by [the] three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths.

¹⁹For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails [were] like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.

²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see [or] hear [or] walk.

²¹Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, [and] theft.