English / ERV
Revelation 9
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1The fifth angel blew his trumpet. Then I saw a star fall from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the deep hole that leads down to the bottomless pit.
- 2Then the star opened the hole leading to the pit. Smoke came up from the hole like smoke from a big furnace. The sun and sky became dark because of the smoke from the hole.
- 3Then locusts came out of the smoke and went down to the earth. They were given the power to sting like scorpions.
- 4They were told not to damage the fields of grass or any plant or tree. They were to hurt only those who did not have God’s mark on their foreheads.
- 5They were not given the power to kill them but only to cause them pain for five months—pain like a person feels when stung by a scorpion.
- 6During those days people will look for a way to die, but they will not find it. They will want to die, but death will hide from them.
- 7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something that looked like a gold crown. Their faces looked like human faces.
- 8Their hair was like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth.
- 9Their chests looked like iron breastplates. The sound their wings made was like the noise of many horses and chariots hurrying into battle.
- 10The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions. The power they had to give people pain for five months was in their tails.
- 11They had a ruler, who was the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon.[1] In Greek it is Apollyon.[2]
- 12The first terror is now past. There are still two other terrors to come.
- The sixth angel blew his trumpet. Then I heard a voice coming from the horns on the four corners of the golden altar that is before God.