Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air were darkened by the smoke.
Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
They were told not to hurt the grass or plants or trees but to attack all the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with agony like the pain of scorpion stings.
In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee away!
The locusts looked like horses armed for battle. They had gold crowns on their heads, and they had human faces.
Their hair was long like the hair of a woman, and their teeth were like the teeth of a lion.
They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.
They had tails that stung like scorpions, with power to torture people. This power was given to them for five months.
Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon--the Destroyer.
The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God.
And the voice spoke to the sixth angel who held the trumpet: "Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River."
And the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth.
They led an army of 200 million mounted troops--I heard an announcement of how many there were.
And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and sky blue and yellow. The horses' heads were like the heads of lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths.
One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues--by the fire and the smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses.
Their power was in their mouths, but also in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.
But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to turn from their evil deeds. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood--idols that neither see nor hear nor walk!
And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their immorality or their thefts.