Revelation 9

Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. God gave it the key to the deep, dark pit.

When he opened that pit, a huge amount of smoke rose from it, as if it were a great burning furnace. The smoke prevented anyone from seeing the light of the sun and the sky. \*

Then locusts came out of the smoke and started swarming the earth. God gave these locusts the power to sting people just as scorpions sting people.

God told the locusts that they should not eat up all the grass on the ground and all the plants and all the leaves on the trees {as locusts usually do}. God told the locusts just to sting the people who did not have the mark on their foreheads that showed they belonged to God. \*

God did not allow the locusts to kill those people. Instead, the locusts kept torturing people for five months. The pain those people felt was like the pain that a scorpion causes when it stings someone.

During the time when the locusts torture people who refuse to belong to God, those people {will be in so much pain that they} will want to die. But God will make sure those people stay alive {to experience the punishment for their sin}. \*

The locusts looked like horses that were ready for battle. They had what looked like golden crowns on their heads. Their faces were like human faces.

They had long hair like women’s long hair. Their teeth were as strong as lions’ teeth.

They wore breastplates made of metal. When they were flying, their wings made a noise like the roar of many horses pulling chariots and rushing into battle. \*

They had tails like the tails of scorpions. With these tails they could sting people. Their power to harm people during those five months was in their tails.

The king who ruled over them was the angel of the deep, dark pit. His name in the Hebrew language is Abaddon. In the Greek language it is Apollyon. Both of these names mean Destroyer.

{After five months the locusts went away.} That ended the first terrible event. But be aware that two more terrible events are still to come. \*

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four corners of the golden altar that is in God’s presence.

The voice was saying to the sixth angel, the one who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels whom I have bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Then those four angels went free. They had been waiting for that exact moment. They went free so they could enable their soldiers to kill one third of humanity. \*

I heard someone say how many soldiers there were riding on horses. The number was 200, 000, 000.

In the vision I saw what the horses and the soldiers who rode them looked like. The soldiers wore breastplates that were red like fire, blue like sapphire, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions. From their mouths came fire, smoke, and fumes of burning sulfur. \*

Those three things—the fire, the smoke, and the burning sulfur from the horses’ mouths—killed one third of humanity.

But the power of the horses was also in their tails, as well as in their mouths. Their tails were like snakes, and they had heads that bit people. \*

But there were still people whom the plagues of fire and smoke and burning sulfur did not kill. Those people did not stop doing sinful things. They also did not stop worshiping demons and idols that they had made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. The people did not stop worshiping the idols even though they were lifeless statues that could not help people.

They also did not stop murdering other people, practicing sorcery, acting in sexually immoral ways, and stealing things. \*