1 When the fifth angel sounded, I saw a star {astera: heavenly sign} from heaven already fallen to the earth; and he was given the key of the shaft {phreatos: deep tunnel} of the abyss.
2 And he opened the shaft of the abyss {abyssou: immeasurable depth}, and smoke went up out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace {kaminou: blazing oven}. And the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.
3 And out of the smoke {kapnos: rising judgment sign} locusts came onto the earth, and authority {exousia: delegated ruling power} was given to them, like the authority the scorpions of the earth have.
4 And it was said to them that they should not harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, except the people who do not have the seal of God {Theos, Sovereign Mark-Giver} on their foreheads {metopon: sign of identity}.
5 And it was granted to them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented for five months {menas: limited period}; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion {skorpios: venomous creature} when it strikes a man.
6 And in those days people {anthropoi: suffering humanity} will seek death {thanatos: bodily end}, and they will certainly not find it; and they will desire to die, but death will flee from them.
7 And the likenesses {homoiomata: visionary forms} of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle, and upon their heads were crowns {stephanoi: victory wreaths} like gold, and their faces were like the faces of humans
8 And they had hair {trichas: long flowing hair} like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions {leonton: fierce predators}.
9 And they had breastplates {thorax: war armor} like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings {pterygon: beating motion} was like the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle.
10 And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their authority to harm {adikesai: wrongful injury} the people for five months {menas: lunar cycles}.
11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss {abyssos: bottomless prison}; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon {Abaddon: Destruction Bringer}, and in the Greek language he has the name Apollyon.
12 The one woe {ouai: intense judgment warning} has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things {tauta: preceding visions}.
13 And the sixth angel {angelos: divine messenger} blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice from the four horns of the golden altar that stands before God {Theos, Supreme Judge}.
14 Saying to the sixth angel, the one who has the trumpet {salpingga: solemn warning call}, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates {Euphrate: strategic frontier region}.”
15 And the four angels {angeloi: supernatural agents}, who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year, were released {elythesan: set loose} so that they might kill a third of mankind.
16 And the number of the cavalry armies was two hundred million {dismyriades: myriads of myriads}, and I heard their number {arithmos: exact total}.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision {horasis: prophetic sight}, and those who sat on them, having breastplates {thorakas: war armor} fiery, hyacinth-colored, and sulfurous; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and sulfur.
18 By these three plagues {plēgōn: devastating blows}, a third of humanity {anthrōpōn: human race} was killed by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur that came forth out of their mouths.
19 For the power {exousia: delegated destructive force} of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents {opheis: ominous snake-forms} having heads, and with them they do harm.
20 And the rest of humanity, those who were not killed by these plagues {plegais: severe judgments}, did not even repent {metenoēsan: turn from rebellion} of the works of their hands; they did not stop worshiping the demons and the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, nor hear, nor walk.
21 And they did not repent from their murders, nor from their sorceries {pharmakon: magical practices}, nor from their fornication {porneia: illicit sex}, nor from their thefts.