1Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. 2He opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace. The sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft. 3Then out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead. 5The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7Now the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, and their faces looked like men’s faces. 8They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 10They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails. 11They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.

12The first woe has passed, but two woes are still coming after these things!

13Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God, 14saying to the sixth angel, the one holding the trumpet, “Set free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” 15Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year were set free to kill a third of humanity. 16The number of soldiers on horseback was two hundred million; 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, dark blue, and sulfurous yellow in color. The heads of the horses looked like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths. 18A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues, that is, by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19For the power of the horses resides in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries. 20The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. 21Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.