The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 The fifth Angel trumpeted. I saw a Star plummet from Heaven to earth. The Star was handed a key to the Well of the Abyss.
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Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2 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.
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When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
3 Then out of the smoke crawled locusts with the venom of scorpions.
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Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
4 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."
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They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5 They were ordered to torture but not kill, torture them for five months, the pain like a scorpion sting.
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They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.
6 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.
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In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
7 The locusts looked like horses ready for war. They had gold crowns, human faces,
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The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.
8 women's hair, the teeth of lions,
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They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.
9 and iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was the sound of horse-drawn chariots charging into battle.
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They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.
10 Their tails were equipped with stings, like scorpion tails. With those tails they were ordered to torture the human race for five months.
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They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.
11 They had a king over them, the Angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek, Apollyon - "Destroyer."
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Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is and in Greek, —the Destroyer.
12 The first doom is past. Two dooms yet to come.
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The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
13 The sixth Angel trumpeted. I heard a voice speaking to the sixth Angel from the horns of the Golden Altar before God:
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Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God.
14 "Let the Four Angels loose, the Angels confined at the great River Euphrates."
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And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.”
15 The 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.
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Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth.
16 The number of the army of horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard the count
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I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops.
17 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.
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And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths.
18 With these three weapons - fire and smoke and brimstone - they killed a third of the human race.
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One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses.
19 The horses killed with their mouths and tails; their serpentlike tails also had heads that wreaked havoc.
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Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.
20 The 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.
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But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!
21 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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And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.