Book of Common Prayer

9 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The key to the big hole that has no bottom was given to the angel.

² He opened the big hole and smoke came out. It was like the smoke of a very big fire. The sun and the air were made dark by the smoke from the big hole.

³ Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth like big grasshoppers. They were given the power to hurt people the way that scorpions do.

⁴ They were told not to spoil any of the grass, nor any green plant, nor any tree on earth. They were told to hurt only the people who did not have God's mark on their foreheads.

⁵ They were told not to kill them, but to trouble them for five months. The pain they give is like the pain a scorpion gives when it strikes a person.

⁶ In those days people will look for death, but they will not be able to find it. They will want to die, but death will fly away from them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses ready to go to war. On their heads were gold crowns. And they had faces like people.

⁸ Their hair was like women's hair and their teeth like lions' teeth.

⁹ Their bodies were covered by something like pieces of iron. The noise of their wings sounded like many wagons and horses running to war.

¹⁰ The locusts had tails like scorpions that could strike people and hurt them for five months.

¹¹ The king of the locusts is the angel of the big hole that has no bottom. His name is Abaddon in the Jew's language and Apollyon in the Greek language. (This means, the one who destroys.)

¹² The first trouble is gone. Two more troubles are coming after it.

²⁵ A man who taught God's law stood up and asked Jesus a question to try him out. `Teacher,' he said. `What must I do so that I will live for ever?'

²⁶ Jesus said to him, `What does the law say? What do you read there?'

²⁷ The man answered, `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love him with all your soul. Love him with all your power, and love him with all your mind. And you must love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

²⁸ Jesus said, `That is the right answer. Do that and you will live for ever.'

²⁹ But the man wanted to prove that he was all right. So he said to Jesus, `Who is my neighbour?'

³⁰ Jesus answered, `A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Bad men caught him on the road. They took his clothes and beat him. Then they went away and left him half dead.

³¹ A priest happened to be going down that road. He saw the man but he passed by on the other side of the road.

³² `A man who worked in the temple came along to that place also. He saw the man but he passed by on the other side.

³³ `A man from the country of Samaria was going on that road also, and came to the place. He saw the man and wanted to share in his troubles.

³⁴ He went to him and tied up the sores he had from the beating. He washed them with oil and wine. Then he lifted the man up and set him on his own animal to ride. He took him to the house for strangers. And he cared for him.

³⁵ `The next day he gave two pieces of money to the man who was in charge of the house for strangers. He said, "Take care of this man. If it costs you more than this, I will pay you when I come back.'' '

³⁶ Jesus said to the teacher of the law, `What do you think? Which of these three was a neighbour to the man who was caught by the bad men?'

³⁷ He said, `The man who was kind to him.' Jesus said, `Go and do as he did.'