1Then the fifth angel blew; and I saw a star that had fallen on the earth from the heavens, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2He opened the bottomless pit, and from the pit rose a smoke like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air grew dark because of the smoke from the pit.
3Out of the smoke locusts descended on the earth, and they received the same power as that possessed by scorpions.
4They were told not to harm the grass, or any plant, or any tree, but only those who have not the seal of God on their foreheads.
5Yet they were not allowed to kill them, but it was ordered that those men should be tortured for five months. Their torture was like the torture caused by a scorpion when it stings a person.
6In those days people will seek Death and will not find it; They will long to die, but Death flees from them.
7In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads there were what appeared to be crowns that shone like gold, their faces resembled human faces,
8and they had hair like the hair of a woman, their teeth were like lions’ teeth,
9and they had what seemed to be iron breastplates, while the noise of their wings was like the noise of chariots drawn by many horses, galloping into battle.
10They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and in their tails lies their power to harm people for five months.
11They have as their king the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name, in Hebrew, is ‘Abaddon,’ while, in Greek, his name is ‘Apollyon’ (the Destroyer).
12The first Woe has passed; and still there are two Woes to follow!
13Then the sixth angel blew; and I heard a voice proceeding from the corners of the golden altar that stood before God.
14It spoke to the sixth angel – the angel with the trumpet – and said ‘Let loose the four angels that are in chains at the great river Euphrates.’
15Then the four angels, that were held in readiness for that hour and day and month and year, were let loose, to destroy a third of mankind.
16The number of the hosts of cavalry was ten thousand times ten thousand, twice told; I heard their number.
17And this is what the horses and their riders appeared to be like in my vision: They had breastplates of fire, blood-red and sulphurous, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, while out of their mouths issue fire, and smoke, and sulfur.
18Through these three curses a third of humanity perished – because of the fire, and the smoke, and the sulfur that issued from their mouths;
19for the power of the horses lies in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like snakes, with heads, and it is with them that they do harm.
20But those who were left of humanity, who had not perished through these curses, did not repent and turn away from what their own hands had made; they would not abandon the worship of demons, and of idols made of gold or silver or brass or stone or wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk;
21and they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their licentiousness, or their thefts.