Revelation 9

1The fifth angel blasted his trumpet! I saw a fallen star from heaven standing on earth. God handed this fallen angel the key to the bottomless pit.

2He unlocked the dark shaft of the deep pit. Thick smoke poured out like the exhaust of a giant furnace! The billowing smoke blacked out the sun and the sky.

3Out of the smoke, locusts came down on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions.

4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree. They could harm only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months. The pain they caused was like the sting of a scorpion.

6During those agonizing months, people will desperately search for death. Yet they will not find it! They will long to die, but death will run away from them.

7These locusts looked like armored warhorses prepared for battle. They wore what looked like golden crowns upon their heads. Their faces resembled intelligent human faces.

8Their long hair flowed like women's hair. Their sharp teeth tore like lions' teeth!

9They wore chestplates of iron armor. The thundering roar of their wings sounded like charging chariots!

10They possessed scorpion tails equipped with venomous stingers. Their stingers held power to torment people for five long months.

11Their king was the angel of the deep pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon (which means Destroyer).

12The first terror is past. Two more are still to come.

13The sixth angel blasted his trumpet! I heard a voice speak from the golden altar before God.

14It commanded the angel: Release the four bound angels at the Euphrates River!

15So the four execution angels were released. God kept them prepared for this exact hour, day, month, and year! They rode out to slaughter one-third of all human beings.

16I heard the count of the cavalry: two hundred million mounted troops!

17The riders wore armor of fiery red, smoky blue, and sulfur yellow. The horses had ferocious heads like roaring lions. Blazing fire, thick smoke, and burning sulfur belched from their mouths!

18These three plagues wiped out one-third of all humanity.

19The horses' power lay in their deadly mouths and their tails. Their tails were like biting venomous snakes with heads!

20The surviving people still refused to turn away from their evil deeds! They kept right on worshiping demons and lifeless handmade idols. They bowed to idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. Those idols cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot even walk!

21The survivors refused to repent of their murders and witchcraft. They refused to stop their sexual immorality and stealing!