1And 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. 2He opened the abyss and a cloud of smoke rose as if from a great furnace, which darkened the sun and the air.
3Locusts came from this smoke and spread throughout the earth. They were given the same harmful power as the scorpions of the earth. 4Then 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. 5They were not to kill them, but only torture them for five months. This pain is like the sting of scorpions. 6In those days, people will look for death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. 7These locusts look like horses equipped for battle; they wear golden crowns on their heads, and their faces are like those of human beings. 8Their hair is like women’s hair, and their teeth, like lion’s teeth; 9their chests are like iron breastplates; and the noise of their wings, like the roar of an army of chariots and horses rushing for battle.
10Their tails are like those of scorpions and have stings; the power they have to torture people for five months is in their tails. 11These locusts have a king who is the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, or Apollyon in Greek (Destruction).
12The first woe has passed. Two others are to come.
13The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then, I heard a voice calling from the corners of the golden altar before God. 14It said to the sixth angel who had just sounded the trumpet, “Release the four angels chained at the banks of the great river Euphrates.”
15And the four angels were released, who had been waiting for this year, this month, this day and this hour, ready to utterly destroy a third of humankind. 16The number of the soldiers on horses was two hundred million; this is the number I heard.
17In my vision, I saw those horses and their riders: they wore breastplates the color of fire, hyacinth, and sulfur. The heads of the horses look like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur come out of their mouths.
18Then, a third of humankind was killed by these three plagues: fire, smoke and sulfur which the horses released through their mouths, 19for the power of the horses was both in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails, in fact, look like serpents, and their heads are able to inflict injury as well.
20However, the rest of humankind 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. 21No, they did not repent of their crimes, or their sorcery, or their sexual immorality or their theft.
