1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and the star was given the key to the pit of the abyss.

2¹⁴²He opened the pit of the abyss, and from the pit rose smoke like the smoke of a ¹⁴³burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

3Then out of the smoke locusts descended upon the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.

4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5They were permitted to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

6In those days people will seek death but will ¹⁴⁴certainly not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads they wore something like ¹⁴⁵golden crowns; their faces were like human faces.

8They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.

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

10They have tails ¹⁴⁶and stingers like scorpions, and in their ¹⁴⁷tails they have the power to harm people for five months.

11They have as king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek his name is Apollyon.

12The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to come after this.

13Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a single voice from the ¹⁴⁸four horns of the golden altar 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 who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

16The number of the troops ¹⁴⁹on horse was ¹⁵⁰ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.

17Now this is what the horses and their riders looked like in my vision: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.

18By these three ¹⁵¹plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of the horses' mouths.

19For ¹⁵²the power of the horses ¹⁵³is in their mouths ¹⁵⁴and in their tails, because their tails have heads like serpents, and with them they inflict harm.

20The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent from the works of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, ¹⁵⁵bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.

21Nor did they repent of their murders, sorceries, fornication, or thefts.