Revelation 9

1 And the fifth messenger sounded; and I saw a star fallen out of heaven to the earth, and the key of the shaft of the abyss was given to it. [a] 2 And it opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the shaft. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came out onto the earth, and authority was given to them as the scorpions of the earth have authority. [b] 4 And it was said to them that they should not harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. [c] 5 And it was given to them not to kill them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment is like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. [d] 6 And in those days the people will seek death and will certainly not find it, and they will long to die, and death flees from them. [e]

7 And the likenesses of the locusts were like horses prepared for war, and on their heads something like crowns similar to gold, and their faces like the faces of people, [f] 8 and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like those of lions, 9 and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings like the sound of chariots of many horses running into war; [g] 10 and they have tails similar to scorpions, and stings, and in their tails is their authority to harm the people five months. 11 They have over them as king the messenger of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. [h] 12 The first woe has gone. Look, two woes are still coming after these things. [i]

13 And the sixth messenger sounded; and I heard one voice out of the horns of the golden altar that is before God, 14 saying to the sixth messenger, the one having the trumpet, “Loose the four messengers who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” [j] 15 And the four messengers were loosed who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, so that they should kill the third of the people. 16 And the number of the armies of the cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number. [k]

17 And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them: having breastplates fiery, and hyacinth, and sulfurous; and the heads of the horses like heads of lions, and out of their mouths go fire and smoke and sulfur. [l] 18 By these three blows the third of the people were killed — by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur going out of their mouths. [m] 19 For the authority of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like snakes, having heads, and by them they do harm.

20 And the rest of the people, who were not killed by these blows, did not even have a change of mind out of the works of their hands, so as not to bow down to the demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of bronze and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; [n] 21 and they did not have a change of mind out of their murders, or out of their sorceries, or out of their sexual immorality, or out of their thefts. [o]