Beginning

9 Then the fifth messenger sounded his trumpet. I saw a star that had dropped out of heaven to earth. He received the key that unlocks the shaft leading to the abyss, the pit that falls away to nothingness; and ² he opened the shaft to the abyss. Huge columns of smoke rose from the depths of the cavern—a black, ugly smoke as if from a great furnace so that the sun was darkened and the air was thickened by the blanket of smoke from the shaft. ³ From the smoke, locusts appeared and swarmed upon the earth. They were given power, like the power of scorpions on the earth. ^4-5 However, they were instructed not to damage any grasses, plants, or trees that grow from the earth. Instead, they were given power for five months to torture, but not to kill, the people without the seal of God upon their foreheads. The torment they inflicted was like the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. ⁶ During those days, people will seek any way possible to kill themselves, but death will not befriend them. They will long to die and end their miseries, but death will elude them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses clad in armor, ready for battle. They wore golden wreaths on their heads, and their faces appeared human ⁸ with hair as long as women’s hair, but they had teeth as sharp as lions’ teeth. ⁹ They had armor that appeared to be iron plated; and when their wings flapped, they sounded like an army of horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They have tails like scorpions with stingers, and the power invested in them to inflict torture on people for five months lies in their tails. ¹¹ They were ruled by the messenger of the abyss, whose Hebrew name is Abaddon and whose Greek name is Apollyon, both meaning “the Destroyer.”

¹² The first disaster has occurred; there are two more disasters to come.

¹³ Then the sixth messenger sounded his trumpet; and I heard a voice from the four corners of the golden altar that is before God, ¹⁴ commanding the sixth messenger with the trumpet.

¹⁵ Then the four messengers, who had been held in chains until the hour and the day and the month and the year when they would kill one-third of humanity, were released.

¹⁶ I heard that 200 million soldiers rode in the cavalry. ¹⁷ This is how these horses and their riders appeared in my vision: the riders wore breastplates of fiery red, smoky blue,^[a] and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses seemed to be like the heads of lions; they breathed fire and smoke and sulfur from their mouths, ¹⁸ killing one-third of humanity with the three plagues coming out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The lethal power of these horses was not only in their mouths but also in their tails because their tails, which resembled snakes, had heads that inflicted injury.

²⁰ The rest of humanity, those not killed by these plagues, did not rethink their course and turn away^[b] from the devices of their own making. Despite all these calamities, they continued worshiping demons and idols crafted in gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. They bowed down to images which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ They failed to turn away^[c] from their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immoralities, and their thefts.

10 Then I saw another extremely powerful messenger descending out of heaven. He wore a cloud wrapped around him, and a rainbow was covering his head. His face shone like the sun, and his legs blazed like columns of fire. ² In his hand, he held a little scroll that had been unrolled. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on dry land; ³ then he shouted with a voice that sounded like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders answered with their own rumbling voices. ⁴ As I was about to record the thunders’ answer, a voice from heaven stopped me.

⁵ Then the messenger, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the dry land, raised his right hand into heaven ⁶ and swore an oath to the Eternal One—who always lives, who created heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

⁸ Again, the voice I heard from heaven addressed me.

⁹ I then went to the messenger and asked him to give me the little scroll.

¹⁰ I took the little scroll from the hand of the messenger and ate it. In my mouth, it was sweet like honey, but my stomach became bitter after I swallowed it.

11 Then I received a measuring rod. It resembled a staff, and I was commanded to take measurements.

⁴ These two witnesses are the two olive trees and two lampstands standing in front of the Lord of the earth. ⁵ If anyone wishes to harm the witnesses, fire spews out of the witnesses’ mouths and consumes their foe in flames. Anyone who wishes to harm them is destined to die this way. ⁶ They have the authority to shut up the sky so that no rain may fall during the time of their prophecies. They also have authority to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with any plague whenever they desire.

⁷ On the day they finish their testimony, the beast from the abyss will declare war on them and win victory by killing them. ⁸ Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city (which, spiritually speaking, is called Sodom and Egypt) where their Lord was crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days, representatives of the peoples and ethnicities, languages and nations stare down at their lifeless bodies and refuse them a proper burial. ¹⁰ Because these two prophets tormented the earth dwellers by speaking God’s message, the people will rejoice over their dead bodies and celebrate their deaths by exchanging gifts with one another.

¹¹ At the end of the three and a half days, the spirit of life that comes from God entered their corpses, raising them, and they stood again on their feet. Those who looked on were terrified by what they saw. ¹² Then they heard a great voice from heaven.

Their enemies watched the spectacle as the witnesses ascended into heaven in a cloud.

¹³ In that same hour, a great earthquake shook the earth causing one-tenth of the city to crumble into dust, and 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Then the rest who were left alive, quaking in fear, turned and glorified the God of heaven.

¹⁴ The second disaster has passed; watch as the third disaster comes quickly.

¹⁵ The seventh messenger sounded his trumpet, and great voices in heaven confessed:

¹⁶ Then the twenty-four elders, who sit before God on their thrones, fell prostrate and worshiped God.

¹⁹ Then God’s temple in heaven was opened up, and His covenant chest could be seen within His temple. Lightning flashed all around. Noises and thunder rumbled. The earth trembled. Heavy hailstones fell from the sky.

12 As I looked, a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman came into view clothed in the radiance of the sun, standing with the moon under her feet, and she was crowned with a wreath of twelve stars on her head. ² She was painfully pregnant and was crying out in the agony of labor. ³ Then a second sign appeared in heaven, ominous, foreboding: a great red dragon, with seven crowned heads and ten horns. ⁴ The dragon’s tail brushed one-third of the stars from the sky and hurled them down to the earth. The dragon crouched in front of the laboring woman, waiting to devour her child the moment it was born.

⁵ She gave birth to a male child, who is destined to rule the nations with an iron scepter. Before the dragon could bite and devour her son, the child was whisked away and brought to God and His throne. ⁶ The woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place of refuge and safety where she could find sustenance for 1,260 days.

⁷ A battle broke out in heaven. Michael, along with his heavenly messengers, clashed against the dragon. The dragon and his messengers returned the fight, ⁸ but they did not prevail and were defeated. As a result, there was no place left for them in heaven. ⁹ So the great dragon, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was cast down to the earth along with his messengers. ¹⁰ Then I heard a great voice in heaven.

¹³ When the dragon realized he had been cast down to the earth, he pursued the mother of the male infant. ¹⁴ In order to escape the serpent, she was given the two wings of the great eagle to fly deeper into the wilderness to her own special place where she would find sustenance for a time, and times, and half a time. ¹⁵ Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a raging river that chased after the woman, trying to sweep her away in the flood. ¹⁶ But the earth came to her rescue. It opened its gaping mouth and swallowed the river that spewed from the dragon’s mouth. ¹⁷ As a result, the dragon was enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children—those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁸ And [the dragon]^[d] stood waiting on the sand of the seashore.