The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets

Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. It was given the key for the passage to the abyss.

NAB footnote:A star that had fallen: an angel (cf Rev 1:20), perhaps Satan (cf Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12). Abyss: the abode of evil spirits.

It opened the passage to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage.

Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the earth.

NAB footnote:Locusts: a traditional symbol of divine punishment; cf Exodus 10:12-15; Joel 1:4-2:11.

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or any tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

They were not allowed to kill them but only to torment them for five months; the torment they inflicted was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person.

They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon.

NAB footnote:Abaddon: Hebrew for 'destruction.' Apollyon: Greek for 'the destroyer.'

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the (four) horns of the gold altar before God,

telling the sixth angel who held the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the banks of the great river Euphrates."

So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race.

The rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

NAB footnote:Did not repent: the plagues are meant to lead people to repentance, but many refuse.

Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies.