The Fifth Trumpet

9 The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth.^(A) The key to the shaft of the abyss^(B) was given to him. ² He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great^[a] furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. ³ Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power^[b] was given to them^(C) like the power that scorpions have on the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it strikes a man. ⁶ In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

⁷ The appearance of the locusts was like horses equipped for battle.^(D) Something like gold crowns was on their heads; their faces were like men’s faces; ⁸ they had hair like women’s hair; their teeth were like lions’ teeth;^{(E) 9} they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses rushing into battle; ¹⁰ and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power^[c] to harm people for five months. ¹¹ They had as their king^[d] the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,^[e] and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.^{[f] 12} The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.