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The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a+ burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. They were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a person. In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war. 10 They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months. 11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”,+ but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”. + 12 The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.
13 The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
15 The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million.+ I heard the number of them. 17 Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm. 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk. 21 They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries,+ their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
+1:1or, messenger (here and wherever angel is mentioned)+1:7“Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.+1:8TR adds “the Beginning and the End”+1:8TR omits “God”+1:11TR adds “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.”+1:11TR adds “which are in Asia”+1:18or, Hell+1:20or, messengers (here and wherever angels are mentioned)+2:3TR adds “have labored and”+2:15TR reads “which I hate” instead of “likewise”+2:17Manna is supernatural food, named after the Hebrew for “What is it?”. See Exodus 11:7-9.+2:20TR, NU read “that” instead of “your”+4:8Hodges/Farstad MT reads “holy” 9 times instead of 3.+4:11TR omits “and God, the Holy One,”+5:13TR omits “Amen!”+5:14TR adds “twenty-four”+5:14TR adds “the one living forever and ever”+6:6A choenix is a dry volume measure that is a little more than a liter (a little more than a quart).+6:8or, Hell+6:11The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”+8:7TR omits “One third of the earth was burned up”+8:13TR reads “angel” instead of “eagle”+9:2TR adds “great”+9:11“Abaddon” is a Hebrew word that means “ruin”, “destruction”, or “the place of destruction”+9:11“Apollyon” means “Destroyer”.+9:16literally, “ten thousands of ten thousands”+9:21The word for “sorceries” (pharmakeia) also implies the use of potions, poisons, and drugs