and they besought Him not to command them to be gone into the Bottomless Pit.

"nor 'Who shall go down into the abyss?'" --that is, to bring Christ up again from the grave.

The fifth angel blew his trumpet; and I saw a Star which had fallen from Heaven to the earth; and to him was given the key of the depths of the bottomless pit, and he opened the depths of the bottomless pit. And smoke came up out of the pit resembling the smoke of a vast furnace, so that the sun was darkened, and the air also, by reason of the smoke of the pit. read more. And from the midst of the smoke there came locusts on to the earth, and power was given to them resembling the power which earthly scorpions possess. And they were forbidden to injure the herbage of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree. They were only to injure human beings--those who have not the seal of God on their foreheads. Their mission was not to kill, but to cause awful agony for five months; and this agony was like that which a scorpion inflicts when it stings a man. And at that time people will seek death, but will by no possibility find it, and will long to die, but death evades them. The appearance of the locusts was like that of horses equipped for war. On their heads they had wreaths which looked like gold. Their faces seemed human and they had hair like women's hair, but their teeth resembled those of lions. They had breast-plates which seemed to be made of steel; and the noise caused by their wings was like that of a vast number of horses and chariots hurrying into battle. They had tails like those of scorpions, and also stings; and in their tails lay their power of injuring mankind for five months. The locusts had a king over them--the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is 'Abaddon,' while in the Greek he is called 'Apollyon.'

"And when they have fully delivered their testimony, the Wild Beast which is to rise out of the bottomless pit will make war upon them and overcome them and kill them.

"The Wild Beast which you have seen was, and is not, and yet is destined to re-ascend, before long, out of the bottomless pit and go his way into perdition. And the inhabitants of the earth will be filled with amazement--all whose names are not in the Book of Life, having been recorded there ever since the creation of the world--when they see the Wild Beast: because he was, and is not, and yet is to come.

Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and upon his arm he carried a great chain.

He closed the entrance and put a seal upon him in order that he might be unable to lead the nations astray any more until the thousand years were at an end. Afterwards he is to be set at liberty for a short time.