Revelation 9 (NMV)
1 The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the abyss [the deep opening to the pit].
2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.
3 Then locusts came out of the smoke onto the earth, and they were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.
4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5 They were not allowed to kill them, but were to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.
6 In those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like human faces.
8 They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.
9 They had breastplates like iron armor, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
10 They had tails with stingers like scorpions, and in their tails they had the power to torment people for five months.
11 They had as king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon [both mean "Destroyer"].
12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God,
14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."
15 So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race.
16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand, I heard their number.
17 This is how I saw the horses in my vision and their riders: They had breastplates that were fiery red, deep blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses were like lions' heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths.
18 A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes with heads, and they harm with them.
20 The rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues still did not turn back from the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.
21 And they did not turn away from their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.