Open English Translation REV Chapter 9

9 Then the fifth messenger blew his trumpet and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, and he/it[fn] was given the key to the deep, dark pit. 2 When he/it unlocked and opened that pit, smoke came up out of it like the smoke of a large furnace, and the smoke darkened the sun and the air.[ref] 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke and descended on the land, and they were given stinging power like the large scorpions of the earth.[ref] 4 However the locusts were told that they shouldn’t harm the grass or any green plants or trees, but only those people who didn’t have God’s mark on their foreheads.[ref] 5 They weren’t given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like that of a scorpion when it strikes a person. 6 People in those days will try to die, but won’t be able to—they will long to die, but death will run away from them.[ref]

7 The locusts looked like horses that had been prepared for battle, with something on their heads that were similar to golden crowns and their faces being like human faces.[ref] 8 Their hair was like women’s hair and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.[ref] 9 They wore chestplates that seemed to be made of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses rushing into battle pulling chariots.[ref] 10 They had tails with stingers like scorpions which had the power to harm people for five months. 11 They had a king in charge of them who’s the messenger of the deep pit—his name is ‘Destroyer’. (‘Abaddon’ in Hebrew and ‘Apollyon’ in Greek.)

12 The first terrible event has now passed, but there are still two more to follow.

13 Then the sixth messenger blew his trumpet and I heard a voice coming from the corners of the golden altar in front of God,[ref] 14 that was telling the sixth messenger (with the trumpet), “Release the four messengers that are tied up by the large Euphrates River.” 15 So the four messengers who had been prepared for this exact time were released to kill a third of humankind. 16 I heard someone say how many mounted soldiers there were—there were 200 million of them, 17 and this is what the horses and their riders looked like in my vision: the soldiers wore chestplates that were red like fire, blue like sapphire, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and fumes of burning sulfur came out of their mouths. 18 These three plagues (fire, smoke, and burning sulfur coming out of their mouths) killed one third of humankind 19 because the horses’ power is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads that injure people.

20 However, the rest of humankind that hadn’t been killed by those plagues, didn’t repent of their actions and didn’t stop worshipping demons and idols made of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood—idols that can’t see, can’t hear, and can’t walk.[ref] 21 They also didn’t repent of their murdering or of their sorcery, nor of their sexual immorality or of their stealing.