Revelation 9

9 ¹ Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. ² He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke rose from the shaft like smoke from a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. ³ And out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of our Father on their foreheads. ^a a v4 The seal marks those who belong to our Father — the same sealing of his servants described in chapter 7. ⁵ They were not permitted to kill them, but to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶ In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces. ⁸ They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails with stingers like scorpions, and in their tails was their power to harm people for five months. ¹¹ They have a king over them — the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Destruction, and in Greek his name is Apollyon. ^b b v11 Both names mean "Destroyer."

¹² The first woe has passed; look, two more woes are still to come after these things.

¹³ Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar that is before our Father, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

¹⁵ And the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number. ¹⁷ And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those riding them: they had breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and sulfur. ¹⁸ By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like snakes, having heads, and with them they inflict harm.

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, still did not repent of the works of their hands, so as to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.