² He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace flowed out of the pit; and the sun and the atmosphere were darkened by the smoke from the pit.^{(A) 3} Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power [to hurt] was given to them, like the power which the earth’s scorpions have.^{(B) 4} They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but [to hurt] only the people who do not have the seal (mark of ownership, protection) of God on their foreheads.^(C)