The Sixth Trumpet

When the sixth angel sounds, a voice from the horns of the golden altar before God commands the release of four angels bound at the Euphrates. These angels had been prepared for this exact moment to kill a third of mankind. John hears the staggering number of the mounted troops and describes them in apocalyptic battle imagery: fire-colored breastplates, lion-headed horses, and mouths and tails that issue plagues and inflict harm. Fire, smoke, and sulfur become the agents of mass death. The paragraph presents the second woe as vast, exact, and devastating under divine appointment.

T¹³hen the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. ¹⁷Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur. ¹⁸A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.

Despite the death of a third of humanity, the survivors do not repent. They persist in worshiping demons and idols fashioned from lifeless materials that cannot see, hear, or walk. Nor do they turn from murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, or theft. The chapter therefore ends not by highlighting human responsiveness but by exposing deep-seated spiritual rebellion that judgment alone does not cure.

²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.