1 The fifth angel blew his trumpet. Then I saw a star fall from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the deep hole that leads down to the bottomless pit. 2 Then the star opened the hole leading to the pit. Smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. The sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole.

3 Then locusts came out of the smoke and went down to the earth. They were given the power to sting like scorpions. 4 They were told not to damage the fields of grass or any plant or tree. They were to hurt only those who did not have God’s mark on their foreheads. 5 They were not given the power to kill them but only to cause them pain for five months—pain like a person feels when stung by a scorpion. 6 During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will hide from them.

7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something that looked like a gold crown. Their faces looked like human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 Their chests looked like iron breastplates. The sound their wings made was like the noise of many horses and chariots hurrying into battle. 10 The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions. The power they had to give people pain for five months was in their tails. 11 They had a ruler, who was the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon.* Abaddon A Hebrew name meaning “death” or “destruction.” See Job 26:6 and Psalm 88:11. In Greek it is Apollyon.† Apollyon A name that means “destroyer.”

12 The first terror is now past. There are still two other terrors to come.

13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then I heard a voice coming from the horns on the four corners of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are tied at the great river Euphrates.” 15 These four angels had been kept ready for this hour and day and month and year. The angels were set free to kill a third of all the people on the earth. 16 I heard how many troops on horses were in their army. There were 200,000,000.

17 In my vision, I saw the horses and the riders on the horses. They looked like this: They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions. The horses had fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 18 A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues coming out of the horses’ mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur. 19 The horses’ power was in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails were like snakes that have heads to bite and hurt people.

20 The other people on earth were not killed by these plagues. But these people still did not change their hearts and turn away from worshiping the things they had made with their own hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—things that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 They did not change their hearts and turn away from killing other people or from their evil magic, their sexual sins, and their stealing.