Revelation 9
9
1-2The fifth Angel trumpeted. I saw a Star plummet from Heaven to earth. The Star was handed a key to the Well of the Abyss. He unlocked the Well of the Abyss—smoke poured out of the Well, billows and billows of smoke, sun and air in blackout from smoke pouring out of the Well.
3-6Then out of the smoke crawled locusts with the venom of scorpions. They were given their orders: “Don’t hurt the grass, don’t hurt anything green, don’t hurt a single tree—only men and women, and then only those who lack the seal of God on their foreheads.” They were ordered to torture but not kill, torture them for five months, the pain like a scorpion sting. When this happens, people are going to prefer death to torture, look for ways to kill themselves. But they won’t find a way—death will have gone into hiding.
7-11The locusts looked like horses ready for war. They had gold crowns, human faces, women’s hair, the teeth of lions, and iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was the sound of horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. Their tails were equipped with stings, like scorpion tails. With those tails they were ordered to torture the human race for five months. They had a king over them, the Angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek, Apollyon—“Destroyer.”
12The first doom is past. Two dooms yet to come.
13-14The sixth Angel trumpeted. I heard a voice speaking to the sixth Angel from the horns of the Golden Altar before God: “Let the Four Angels loose, the Angels confined at the great River Euphrates.”
15-19The Four Angels were untied and let loose, Four Angels all prepared for the exact year, month, day, and even hour when they were to kill a third of the human race. The number of the army of horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard the count and saw both horses and riders in my vision: fiery breastplates on the riders, lion heads on the horses breathing out fire and smoke and brimstone. With these three weapons—fire and smoke and brimstone—they killed a third of the human race. The horses killed with their mouths and tails; their serpentlike tails also had heads that wreaked havoc.
20-21The remaining men and women who weren’t killed by these weapons went on their merry way—didn’t change their way of life, didn’t quit worshiping demons, didn’t quit centering their lives around lumps of gold and silver and brass, hunks of stone and wood that couldn’t see or hear or move. There wasn’t a sign of a change of heart. They plunged right on in their murderous, occult, promiscuous, and thieving ways.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Revelation 9
9
Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit
1Then the fifth angel sounded: #Luke 10:18; Rev. 8:10And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to #Luke 8:31; Rev. 9:2, 11; 17:8the bottomless pit. 2And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the #Joel 2:2, 10sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, #Ex. 10:4; Judg. 7:12as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4They were commanded #Rev. 6:6not to harm #Rev. 8:7the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have #Ex. 12:23; Ezek. 9:4; Rev. 7:2, 3the seal of God on their foreheads. 5And they were not given authority to kill them, #(Rev. 9:10; 11:7)but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6In those days #Job 3:21; 7:15; Is. 2:19; Jer. 8:3; Rev. 6:16men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
7#Joel 2:4The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. #Nah. 3:17On their heads were crowns of something like gold, #Dan. 7:8and their faces were like the faces of men. 8They had hair like women’s hair, and #Joel 1:6their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was #Jer. 47:3; Joel 2:5–7like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. 10They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. 11And they had as king over them #Eph. 2:2the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.
12#Rev. 8:13; 11:14One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.
Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
13Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the #Rev. 8:3golden altar which is before God, 14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound #Gen. 15:18; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4; Rev. 16:12at the great river Euphrates.” 15So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a #Rev. 8:7–9; 9:18third of mankind. 16Now #Ps. 68:17; Dan. 7:10the number of the army #Ezek. 38:4of the horsemen was two hundred million; #Rev. 7:4I heard the number of them. 17And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; #1 Chr. 12:8; Is. 5:28, 29and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; #Is. 9:15for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, #Deut. 31:29did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship #Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20demons, #Ps. 115:4–7; 135:15–17; Dan. 5:23and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21And they did not repent of their murders #Rev. 21:8; 22:15or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.