Revelation 9:1-11

Contemporary English Version

9 When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star^[a] fall from the sky to earth. It was given the key to the tunnel that leads down to the deep pit. ^2 (A) As it opened the tunnel, smoke poured out like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air turned dark because of the smoke. ^3 (B) Locusts^[b] came out of the smoke and covered the earth. They were given the same power that scorpions have.

^4 (C) The locusts were told not to harm the grass on the earth or any plant or any tree. They were to punish only those people who did not have God's mark on their foreheads. ⁵ The locusts were allowed to make them suffer for five months, but not to kill them. The suffering they caused was like the sting of a scorpion. ^6 (D) In those days people will want to die, but they will not be able to. They will hope for death, but it will escape from them.

^7 (E) These locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore something like gold crowns, and they had human faces. ^8 (F) Their hair was like a woman's long hair, and their teeth were like those of a lion. ^9 (G) On their chests they wore armor made of iron. Their wings roared like an army of horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ Their tails were like a scorpion's tail with a stinger that had the power to hurt someone for five months. ¹¹ Their king was the angel in charge of the deep pit. In Hebrew his name was Abaddon, and in Greek it was Apollyon.^[c]