RevelationChapter 9

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¹The fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the pit of the Abyss. ²The star opened the pit of the Abyss. Smoke rose out of it like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the sky turned dark from the smoke of the pit. ³Locusts came down on the earth out of the smoke. They were given power like the power of scorpions on the earth. ⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree. They were to harm only people who did not have God's seal on their foreheads. ⁵The locusts were not allowed to kill those people. They were only allowed to hurt them for five months. The pain was like the sting of a scorpion. ⁶In those days people will look for death, but they will not find it. They will long to die, but death will run away from them. ⁷The locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore something like gold crowns. Their faces looked like human faces. ⁸They had hair like women's hair. They had teeth like lions' teeth. ⁹They had chest armor that looked like iron. Their wings made a sound like many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰They had tails with stingers like scorpions. Their tails had power to hurt people for five months. ¹¹They had a king over them. He was the angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon. In Greek it is Apollyon.a ¹²The first terror is over. Look, two more terrors are still coming.b ¹³The sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the gold altar that stands before God. ¹⁴It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Set free the four angels who are tied up at the great Euphrates River." ¹⁵So the four angels were set free. They had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year. They were set free to kill a third of all people. ¹⁶There were two hundred million soldiers on horses. I heard how many there were. ¹⁷Here is how the horses and riders looked in my vision. The riders wore chest armor. It was the colors of fire, dark blue, and yellow sulfur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads. Fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸A third of all people were killed by these three plagues. They were killed by the fire, smoke, and sulfur that came out of the horses' mouths. ¹⁹The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails were like snakes. They had heads that they used to hurt people. ²⁰The rest of the people were not killed by these plagues. But they still did not turn away from the things their hands had made. They did not stop worshiping demons. They kept worshiping idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. These idols cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹And they did not turn away from their murders, their witchcraft, their sexual sin, or their stealing.