9 The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. The star was given the key to the bottomless pit. ² He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke ascended from the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit. ³ And out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. Power was given them as the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴ They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were given authority, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. ⁶ In those days men will seek death but will not find it. They will desire to die, but death will elude them.

⁷ The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were something like crowns of gold, and their faces were like faces of men. ⁸ They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running to battle. ¹⁰ They had tails like scorpions and stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for five months. ¹¹ They had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek his name is Apollyon.^[a]

¹² The first woe is past. Now, two more woes are yet to come.

¹³ The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” ¹⁵ And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The army of horsemen numbered two hundred million. I heard their number.

¹⁷ Thus I saw the horses in the vision: Those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone. ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, with heads by which they inflict injury.

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not cease to worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which cannot see nor hear nor walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders or their magical arts or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath

16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.”

² The first went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and foul and grievous sores came on the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image.

³ The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. It became like the blood of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died.

⁴ The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. ⁵ Then I heard the angel of the waters saying:

⁷ And I heard another from the altar saying:

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. ⁹ Men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give Him glory.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was filled with darkness. They gnawed their tongues because of the anguish, ¹¹ and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the East. ¹³ Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴ For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, who go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

¹⁵ “Look, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments on, lest he walk naked and his shame be exposed.”

¹⁶ They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸ And there were noises and thundering and lightning and a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake, as had never occurred since men were on the earth. ¹⁹ The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. ²⁰ Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. ²¹ Great hail, about the weight of a hundred pounds,^[a] fell from heaven upon man. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because that plague was so severe.