1The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. 2He opened the pit of the abyss and smoke went up out of the pit, like smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. 3Then out of the smoke, locusts came forth on the earth and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, or anything green or any tree, but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. 5They 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. 6In those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, but death will flee from them. 7The locusts had the appearance of horses prepared for war. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like human faces. 8They had hair like women’s hair and their teeth were like those of lions. 9They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war. 10They have tails and stings like those of scorpions. In their tails, they have power to harm men for five months. 11They have over them as [their] king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon,”2509 but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon.”2510 12The first disaster2511 is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.
The sixth trumpet
13The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
15Then the four angels who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year were released so that they might kill one third of humankind. 16The number of the armies of the horses2512 was two2513 hundred million;2514 I heard their number. 17Then 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 heads of the horses are as the heads of lions. Fire, smoke, and sulfur come out of their mouths. 18By these three plagues, one third of humankind was killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur which came out of their mouths. 19Indeed, the power of the horses2515 is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like snakes, and these have heads with which they cause harm. 20The rest of mankind, those who were not killed with these plagues, yet did not repent of the works of their hands, they did not cease expressing adoration to2516 demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood—idols which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. 21They did not repent from their murders, or sorceries,2517 or from their sexual immorality, or from their thefts.
The oath of the mighty angel—The command to eat the scroll
- “Abaddon” is a Hebrew word that means ruin, destruction, or the place of destruction
- “Apollyon” means “Destroyer.”
- Or “woe”
- Other manuscripts read “horsemen” instead of “horses”
- Some Byzantine manuscripts (MT) omit “two”
- Literally, “ten thousands of ten thousands”
- TR reads “their power”
- proskuneo can also be translated “worship (in the broad sense),” “venerate,” “fall down in reverence,” “do obeisance” (see NT introduction regarding proskuneo)
- The word for “sorceries” (pharmakeia) also implies the use of potions, poisons, and drugs
Text: The Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible, New Testament (EOB). Used with permission.
