Joe: Alright so, Revelation 9 - what can you tell me about it?

Bible Expert: Well Joe, Revelation 9 is the start of the third woe which is a series of judgments that God sends to the Earth. It begins with an angel descending from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit where a great smoke rises up, and it darkens the sun and the air.

Joe: Wow, so like, what comes out of the pit?

Bible Expert: Well, out of the smoke came locusts that were like horses ready for battle, they had crowns of gold on their heads, faces like humans, hair like women's hair, teeth like a lion's, breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.

Joe: Oh man, that sounds intense - so what did they do?

Bible Expert: Well, they were told not to hurt anything green on the earth, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were given power to torture people for five months, but it wouldn't kill them. The people would be in agony like the pain of a scorpion sting, and they would seek death but it would not come to them.

Joe: Whoa...so what happened after that?

Bible Expert: After that, the sixth angel sounded his trumpet and released four angels who had been bound at the great river Euphrates. They then gathered an army of 200 million horsemen who were ready to go to war.