1And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth; and to him (that fallen ‘star’) was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit (Abyss).
2And when he opened the bottomless pit, smoke arose from the pit like the smoke from a huge furnace; and the sun, sky and air were darkened by the dense smoke from the pit.
3And out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth; and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
4And they were told not to harm the grass of the earth, nor any green plant, nor any tree; but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5And they were not allowed to kill them, but only to torment them for five months; and the agony from their stings was like the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
6In those days people shall seek death, and shall not find it; they shall desire to die, but death shall elude them.
7And those locusts looked like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads were things that resembled crowns of gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
8And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.
9And they had breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing to battle.
10And they had stingers in their tails like scorpions; and they had power to hurt people for five months.
11And they had as their king, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew, is “Abaddon”, but in Greek his name is “Apollyon”.
12One woe is past, but two more woes have yet to come.
13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar before God,
14Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels (forces) who are bound (held back - restrained) at the great Euphrates River (Babylon)”.
15And those four angels (forces) were released - who had been kept and prepared for this very hour, day, month, and year, to slay a third of men.
16And I heard the number of the army of the horsemen: two hundred million.
17And the horses and riders that I saw in the vision looked like this: their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow; and the horses heads looked like the heads of lions, and fire, smoke and brimstone came out of their mouths.
18A third part of men were killed by these three plagues: fire, smoke, and brimstone, belching out of their horses’ mouths killed a third of mankind.
19The power to inflict harm was in both their mouth and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, and the heads of the snakes also inflicted injury.
20And yet those people who were not killed by those plagues still did not repent of their evil deeds, but persisted in worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood – idols that can neither see, hear, nor walk (Jer. 1:16).
21Nor did they repent of their murders, witchcraft, sorceries, sexual perversion, nor of their thefts. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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