9:1 The fifth trumpet sounded, and I saw a star that had fallen out of the sky, and he was given the keys to the shaft of the Abyss.

9:2 When he opened the shaft, smoke went up from it like the smoke from a huge furnace, darkening the sun and the air.

9:3 Out of the smoke to the earth came locusts, and they were given permission like that of the earth’s scorpions.

9:4 The locusts were told not to harm the pastures of the earth, nor anything green, nor any of the trees, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

9:5 And they were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. The torture was like the agony of a scorpion sting,

9:6 and in those days people will seek death but not find it; they will want to die but death will elude them.

9:7 The locusts resembled horses prepared for battle. On their heads they had what looked like golden victor’s crowns, and they had faces like humans.

9:8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

9:9 They wore body armor that seemed to be made of iron, and the sound of their wings was like many horses and chariots running into battle.

9:10 The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions, and the tails were allowed to harm people for five months.

9:11 They had as king over them the Messenger of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.

9:12 The first “woe” is gone, but look! There are still two to come after these things!

9:13 The sixth trumpet sounded, and I heard a voice coming from the four projections on the golden altar before God.

9:14 It told the sixth trumpeter, “Release the four Messengers confined to the great river Euphrates!”

9:15 So the four Messengers were released, having been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year, to kill a third of mankind.

9:16 The number of the cavalry troops was two hundred million; I heard that number.

9:17 This is how I perceived the horses and riders in my vision: they had body armor that was fiery red, deep blue, and bright yellow. The horses’ heads were like lions’ heads, and out of their mouths go fire and smoke and sulphur.

9:18 From these three disasters— the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of their mouths— a third of mankind was killed.

9:19 The horses’ license to kill is in their mouths and tails, because their tails are like serpents who inflict injury with their heads.

9:20 The rest of mankind who were not killed in these three disasters refused to change their minds from what they had done; they did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, copper, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk around.

9:21 Neither did they change their minds from their murders, their sorceries, their promiscuity, or their thefts.