1So the fifth angel trumpeted, and I saw a ‘star’ ¹³¹that had fallen out of the sky to the earth. And to him was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. ¹³²

2So he opened the shaft of the Abyss and smoke went up out of the shaft, like the smoke of a burning furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the shaft.

3And ‘locusts’ exited from the smoke into the earth. And to them was given a capability just like the scorpions of the earth have capability.

4And they were told not to harm the grass of the earth, nor any green plant, nor any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5And it was designated to them [locusts], not to kill them [men] but, to torment them five months. And their torment is like the torment of a scorpion whenever it strikes a person.

6And in those days the people will seek death but not find it; they will want to die but death will run away from them. ¹³³

7Now the appearance of the ‘locusts’ ¹³⁴was like horses prepared for battle, and something like a golden crown was on their heads, and their faces were like human faces.

8They had hair like a woman's and their teeth were like a lion's.

9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.

10And, they have tails like scorpions and stingers precisely in those tails! They have the capability to hurt the populace five months,

11having as king over them the angel of the Abyss—his name in Hebrew is Abbaddon, while in Greek he has the name Apollyon. ¹³⁵

12The first woe is past, but, two woes are still coming, after these things.

The sixth trumpet

13So the sixth angel trumpeted, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar ¹³⁶that is before God

14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

15So the four angels were released—they had been prepared for the hour and the day and month and year—so that they might kill a third of mankind.

16And the number of the mounted troops was a hundred million ¹³⁷(I heard their number).

17And in the vision I saw the horses like this: those who rode them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow; the heads of the horses were like lions' heads; out of their mouths came fire, smoke and brimstone.

18By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths. ¹³⁸

19For the capability of the horses is in their mouths—and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads, and with them they do harm.

20Yet the rest of the people, those who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as to stop worshiping the demons, even the idols ¹³⁹of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;

21and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts. ¹⁴⁰