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The Fifth Trumpet—the Bottomless Pit

¹ Then the ^(C1)fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a ^(C2)star (angelic being) that had fallen from heaven to the earth; and the ^(C3)key of ^(C4)the bottomless pit (abyss) was given to him (the star-angel). ^(VR1)2 He opened the bottomless pit, and ^(C1)smoke like the smoke of a great furnace flowed out of the pit; and ^(C2)the sun and the atmosphere were darkened by the smoke from the pit. ^(VR1)3 Then out of the smoke came ^(C1)locusts upon the earth, and power to hurt was given to them, like the power which the earth's ^(C2)scorpions have. ^(VR1)4 They were told not to ^(C1)hurt the ^(C2)grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but to hurt only the people who do not have the ^(C3)seal (mark of ownership, protection) of God on their foreheads. ^(VR1)5 They were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment and cause them extreme pain for ^(C1)five months; and their torment was like the torment from a ^(C2)scorpion when it stings a man.⁶ And in those days ^(C1)people will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die to escape the pain, but will discover that death evades them. ^(VR1)

⁷ The locusts ^(C1)resembled horses prepared and equipped for battle; and on their heads appeared to be something like golden crowns, and their faces resembled human faces. ^(VR1)8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their ^(C1)teeth were like the teeth of lions. ^(VR1)9 They had breastplates (scales) like breastplates made of iron; and the whirring ^(C1)noise of their wings was like the thunderous noise of countless horse-drawn chariots charging at full speed into battle. ^(VR1)10 They have tails like ^(C1)scorpions, and stingers; and in their ^(C2)tails is their power to hurt people for ^(C3)five months. ^(VR1)11 They have as king over them, the angel of the ^(C1)abyss (the bottomless pit); in ^(C2)Hebrew his name is ^(C3)Abaddon (destruction), and in Greek he is called Apollyon (destroyer-king).

^12 (C1)The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

The Sixth Trumpet—Army from the East

¹³ Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a solitary voice from the four ^(C1)horns of the ^(C2)golden altar which stands before God,¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the ^(C1)four angels who are bound at the ^(C2)great river Euphrates."¹⁵ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the appointed hour and day and month and year, were ^(C1)released to kill a ^(C2)third of mankind.¹⁶ The number of the troops of cavalry was ^(C1)twice ten thousand times ten thousand (two hundred million); ^(C2)I heard the number of them.¹⁷ And this is how I saw the horses and their riders ^(C1)in my vision: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth (sapphire blue) and of ^(C2)brimstone (yellow); and the heads of the horses looked like the heads of lions; and from ^(C3)out of their mouths came fire and smoke and ^(C2)brimstone (burning sulfur).¹⁸ A ^(C1)third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the ^(C2)fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came from the mouths of the horses.¹⁹ For the power of the horses to do harm is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and it is with them that they do harm.

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, ^(F1)(C1)did not repent even then of ^(C2)the works of their hands, so as to cease ^(C3)worshiping and paying homage to the demons and the ^(C4)idols of gold and of silver and of bronze and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; ^(VR1)21 and they ^(C1)did not repent of their murders nor of their ^(C2)sorceries (drugs, intoxications) nor of their sexual ^(C3)immorality nor of their thefts.