Chapter 9

The fifth angel blew his trumpet; and I saw a Star which had fallen from Heaven to the earth; and to him was given the key of the depths of the bottomless pit,

and he opened the depths of the bottomless pit. And smoke came up out of the pit resembling the smoke of a vast furnace, so that the sun was darkened, and the air also, by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And from the midst of the smoke there came locusts on to the earth, and power was given to them resembling the power which earthly scorpions possess.

And they were forbidden to injure the herbage of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree. They were only to injure human beings--those who have not the seal of God on their foreheads.

Their mission was not to kill, but to cause awful agony for five months; and this agony was like that which a scorpion inflicts when it stings a man.

And at that time people will seek death, but will by no possibility find it, and will long to die, but death evades them.

The appearance of the locusts was like that of horses equipped for war. On their heads they had wreaths which looked like gold.

Their faces seemed human and they had hair like women's hair, but their teeth resembled those of lions.

They had breast-plates which seemed to be made of steel; and the noise caused by their wings was like that of a vast number of horses and chariots hurrying into battle.

They had tails like those of scorpions, and also stings; and in their tails lay their power of injuring mankind for five months.

The locusts had a king over them--the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is 'Abaddon,' while in the Greek he is called 'Apollyon.'

The first woe is past; two other woes have still to come.

The sixth angel blew his trumpet; and I heard a single voice speaking from among the horns of the golden incense altar which is in the presence of God.

It said to the sixth angel--the angel who had the trumpet, 'Set at liberty the four angels who are prisoners near the great river Euphrates.'

And the four angels who had been kept in readiness for that hour, day, month, and year, were set at liberty, so that they might kill a third part of mankind.

The number of the cavalry was two hundred millions; I heard their number.

And this was the appearance of the horses which I saw in my vision--and of their riders. The body-armour of the riders was red, blue and yellow; and the horses' heads were shaped like the heads of lions, while from their mouths there came fire and smoke and sulphur.

By these three plagues a third part of mankind were destroyed--by the fire and the smoke, and by the sulphur which came from their mouths.

For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails being like serpents, and having heads, and it is with them that they inflict injury.

But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not even then repent and leave the things they had made, so as to cease worshipping the demons, and the idols of gold and silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear, nor move.

Nor did they repent of their murders, their practice of magic, their fornication, or their thefts.