The Fifth Trumpet Brings the First Terror

9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.^[a]

¹⁰ Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

² When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.

⁷ And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”

¹⁸ I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.^[a]

The Dangers of the Last Days

3 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. ² For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. ³ They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. ⁴ They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. ⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

The Thousand Years

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit^[a] and a heavy chain in his hand.

⁸ The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit^[a] and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.

¹¹ Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.

¹² The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!

The Sixth Trumpet Brings the Second Terror

¹³ Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God.

³¹ The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.^[a]