Revelation

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I, then, saw a star fall from heaven to earth. The star was given the key to the depths of the abyss. 

He opened the abyss, and a cloud of smoke rose as if from a great furnace, which darkened the sun and the air. 

Locusts came from this smoke and spread throughout the earth. They were given the same harmful power as the earth’s scorpions. 

Then they were told not to harm the meadows, the green grass, or the trees, but only the people who do not bear the seal of God upon their foreheads. 

They were not to kill them, but only torture them for five months. This pain is like the sting of scorpions. 

In those days, people will look for death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. 

These locusts look like horses equipped for battle; they wear golden crowns on their heads, and their faces are like those of human beings. 

Their hair is like women’s hair, and their teeth, like lion’s teeth; 

their chests are like iron breastplates; and the noise of their wings, like the roar of an army of chariots and horses rushing for battle. 

Their tails are like those of scorpions and have stings; the power they have to torture people for five months is in their tails. 

These locusts have a king who is the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, or Apollyon in Greek (Destruction). 

The first woe has passed. Two others are to come.

The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then, I heard a voice calling from the four corners of the golden altar before God. 

It said to the sixth angel who had just sounded the trumpet, “Release the four angels chained at the banks of the great river Euphrates.” 

And the four angels were released, who had been waiting for this year, this month, this day, and this hour, ready to destroy a third of the human race utterly. 

The number of soldiers on horses was two hundred million; this is the number I heard. 

In my vision, I saw those horses and their riders: they wore red, blue, and yellow breastplates. The heads of the horses look like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur come out of their mouths. 

Then, a third of humankind was killed by these three plagues: fire, smoke, and sulfur, which the horses released through their mouths, 

for the power of the horses was both in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails, in fact, look like serpents, and their heads can inflict injury as well. 

However, the rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not renounce their way of life: they went on worshiping the demons, keeping those idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood that cannot see, hear, or walk. 

No, they did not repent of their crimes, or their sorcery, or their sexual immorality, or their theft.