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1The fifth spirit-messenger sounded his eagle bone whistle, and I saw a star falling to earth from the spirit-world above. The star was given the power to open the way to the deep, dark underworld.[#9:1 Lit. trumpet , or in Hebrew shofar , meaning “ram’s horn”; #9:1 Lit. key]
2The star opened the way, and smoke began to rise from the pit, like smoke from a great fiery furnace. The air was filled with the smoke, and the sun was darkened.
3Out of the smoke came fierce giant grasshoppers on the land. They were given power to sting like earthly scorpions.
4They were told not to harm any of the earth’s grass or any green plant or tree, but only the human beings who had not been marked on their foreheads with the seal of the Great Spirit.
5They were not permitted to kill anyone, but only to bring them pain and suffering for five moons—pain like the sting of a scorpion.
6In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will run and hide from them.
7The grasshoppers looked like warhorses prepared for battle. They wore golden headdresses, and their faces looked human.
8They had hair like a woman and teeth like a mountain lion.
9They wore breastplates of iron, and their wings sounded like many horses galloping into battle.
10Their tails were like a scorpion’s, and their sting had the power to greatly wound people for five moons.
11Their war-chief is the spirit-messenger of the deep dark underworld. The name of the war-chief in our tribal language is Abaddon, meaning Destroyer, and in the language of the Outside Nations his name is Apollyon, also meaning Destroyer.[#9:11 Hebrew; #9:11 Greek]
12The first time of terrible pain and suffering has passed, but two more times of terrible pain and suffering will soon follow.
13When the sixth spirit-messenger sounded an eagle bone whistle, I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before the Great Spirit.[#9:13 Lit. trumpet , or in Hebrew shofar , meaning “ram’s horn”]
14The voice spoke to the spirit-messenger, saying, “Unleash the four spirit-messengers who are bound at the great river called Much Fruit (Euphrates) .”
15Then the four spirit-messengers who had been held ready for that very hour and day and moon and year were unleashed to kill a third of humankind.
16I heard the number of this great herd of horse riders. It was twice ten thousand multiplied by ten thousand.
17In my sacred vision I could see the appearance of the riders and their horses. The riders wore breastplates that were fiery red, smoky blue, and yellow like sulfur that burns. The horses had heads like mountain lions, and out from their mouths came fire, smoke, and burning sulfur.
18It was these three things that killed a third of humankind—the fire, smoke, and burning sulfur that came from the horses’ mouths.
19The power of the horses was in their mouths and tails, for on the end of their tails were snake-like heads that could bite and injure people.
20The rest of the people who were not killed in this way did not turn away from the spirit-images they made with their own hands. They continued to follow evil spirits and pray to these spirit-images made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—things that cannot see, hear, or walk.
21They also did not turn away from their murders, witchcraft, and sexual impurity, or from taking what is not theirs.