Bible Gateway passage: Revelation 9 - New International Version (2024)

9The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.^(A) The star was given the key^(B) to the shaft of the Abyss.^{(C) 2}When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.^(D) The sun and sky were darkened^(E) by the smoke from the Abyss.^{(F) 3}And out of the smoke locusts^(G) came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions^(H) of the earth. ⁴They were told not to harm^(I) the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^(J) but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{(K) 5}They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^(L) And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^(M) when it strikes. ⁶During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.^(N)

⁷The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.^(O) On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.^{(P) 8}Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.^{(Q) 9}They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.^{(R) 10}They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.^{(S) 11}They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss,^(T) whose name in Hebrew^(U) is Abaddon^(V) and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹²The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.^(W)

¹³The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns^(X) of the golden altar that is before God.^{(Y) 14}It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels^(Z) who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”^{(AA) 15}And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released^(AB) to kill a third^(AC) of mankind.^{(AD) 16}The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.^(AE)

¹⁷The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths^(AF) came fire, smoke and sulfur.^{(AG) 18}A third^(AH) of mankind was killed^(AI) by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur^(AJ) that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent^(AK) of the work of their hands;^(AL) they did not stop worshiping demons,^(AM) and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.^{(AN) 21}Nor did they repent^(AO) of their murders, their magic arts,^(AP) their sexual immorality^(AQ) or their thefts.

Cross references

1. Revelation 9:1 : Rev 8:10
2. Revelation 9:1 : Rev 1:18
3. Revelation 9:1 : ver 2, 11; S Lk 8:31
4. Revelation 9:2 : Ge 19:28; Ex 19:18
5. Revelation 9:2 : Joel 2:2, 10
6. Revelation 9:2 : ver 1, 11; S Lk 8:31
7. Revelation 9:3 : Ex 10:12-15
8. Revelation 9:3 : ver 5, 10
9. Revelation 9:4 : S Rev 6:6
10. Revelation 9:4 : Rev 8:7
11. Revelation 9:4 : S Rev 7:2, 3
12. Revelation 9:5 : ver 10
13. Revelation 9:5 : ver 3
14. Revelation 9:6 : Job 3:21; 7:15; Jer 8:3; Rev 6:16
15. Revelation 9:7 : Joel 2:4
16. Revelation 9:7 : Da 7:8
17. Revelation 9:8 : Joel 1:6
18. Revelation 9:9 : Joel 2:5
19. Revelation 9:10 : ver 3, 5, 19
20. Revelation 9:11 : ver 1, 2; S Lk 8:31
21. Revelation 9:11 : Rev 16:16
22. Revelation 9:11 : Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Ps 88:11
23. Revelation 9:12 : S Rev 8:13
24. Revelation 9:13 : Ex 30:1-3
25. Revelation 9:13 : Rev 8:3
26. Revelation 9:14 : Rev 7:1
27. Revelation 9:14 : Ge 15:18; Dt 1:7; Jos 1:4; Isa 11:15; Rev 16:12
28. Revelation 9:15 : Rev 20:7
29. Revelation 9:15 : S Rev 8:7
30. Revelation 9:15 : ver 18
31. Revelation 9:16 : Rev 5:11; 7:4
32. Revelation 9:17 : Rev 11:5
33. Revelation 9:17 : ver 18; Ps 11:6; Isa 30:33; Eze 38:22; Rev 14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8
34. Revelation 9:18 : S Rev 8:7
35. Revelation 9:18 : ver 15
36. Revelation 9:18 : S ver 17
37. Revelation 9:20 : S Rev 2:21
38. Revelation 9:20 : Dt 4:28; 31:29; Jer 1:16; Mic 5:13; Ac 7:41
39. Revelation 9:20 : S 1Co 10:20
40. Revelation 9:20 : Ps 115:4-7; 135:15-17; Da 5:23
41. Revelation 9:21 : S Rev 2:21
42. Revelation 9:21 : Isa 47:9, 12; Rev 18:23
43. Revelation 9:21 : Rev 17:2, 5