Revelation 9:3-21

3 Then from the smoke came 1locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
4 They were told 2not to harm 3the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have 4the seal of God on their foreheads.
5 They were allowed to torment them 5for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
6 And in those days 6people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 7In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: 8on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were 9like human faces,
8 their hair like women's hair, and 10their teeth like lions' teeth;
9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was 11like the noise of many chariots with 12horses rushing into battle.
10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people 13for five months is in their tails.
11 They have 14as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is 15Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.[a]
12 16The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from 17the four horns of the golden altar before God,
14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release 18the four angels who are bound at 19the great river Euphrates."
15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released 20to kill a third of mankind.
16 The number of 21mounted troops was 22twice ten thousand times ten thousand; 23I heard their number.
17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire[b] and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were 24like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.
18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, 25did not repent of 26the works of their hands nor give up worshiping 27demons 28and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their 29sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Cross References 29

  • 1. See Exodus 10:4
  • 2. Revelation 6:6; Revelation 7:3
  • 3. Revelation 8:7
  • 4. See Revelation 7:2, 3
  • 5. ver. 10
  • 6. Job 3:21; Job 7:15, 16; Jeremiah 8:3
  • 7. Joel 2:4
  • 8. [Nahum 3:17]
  • 9. Daniel 7:8
  • 10. Joel 1:6
  • 11. Joel 2:5
  • 12. Jeremiah 8:6; [Job 39:21-25]
  • 13. ver. 5
  • 14. [Job 18:14; Proverbs 30:27; Ephesians 2:2]
  • 15. See Job 26:6
  • 16. [Revelation 8:13; Revelation 11:14]
  • 17. Exodus 30:3
  • 18. [Revelation 7:1]
  • 19. Revelation 16:12
  • 20. See Revelation 8:7
  • 21. Ezekiel 38:4
  • 22. [Psalms 68:17; Daniel 7:10]
  • 23. Revelation 7:4
  • 24. [1 Chronicles 12:8; Isaiah 5:28, 29]
  • 25. See Revelation 2:21
  • 26. Deuteronomy 31:29; Jeremiah 1:16; Jeremiah 25:14
  • 27. See 1 Corinthians 10:20
  • 28. Psalms 115:4-7; Psalms 135:15-17; Daniel 5:23
  • 29. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15; Galatians 5:20

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Abaddon means destruction; Apollyon means destroyer
  • [b]. Greek hyacinth
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.