9:1 Then ¹  the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky ²  to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. ³  9:2 He ⁴  opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it ⁵  like smoke from a giant furnace. The ⁶  sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft. 9:3 Then ⁷  out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power ⁸  like that of the scorpions of the earth. 9:4 They ⁹  were told ¹⁰  not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people ¹¹  who did not have the seal of God on their ¹²  forehead. 9:5 The locusts ¹³  were not given permission ¹⁴  to kill ¹⁵  them, but only to torture ¹⁶  them ¹⁷  for five months, and their torture was like that ¹⁸  of a scorpion when it stings a person. ¹⁹  9:6 In ²⁰  those days people ²¹  will seek death, but ²²  will not be able to ²³  find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

9:7 Now ²⁴  the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On ²⁵  their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, ²⁶  and their faces looked like men’s ²⁷  faces. 9:8 They ²⁸  had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9:9 They had breastplates ²⁹  like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 9:10 They have ³⁰  tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability ³¹  to injure people for five months is in their tails. 9:11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. ³² 

12:1 Now the Lord said ¹  to Abram, ² 

“Go out ³  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ⁴ 

12:2 Then I will make you ⁵  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ⁶ 

and I will make your name great, ⁷ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁸ 

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ⁹ 

but the one who treats you lightly ¹⁰  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ¹¹  by your name.”

12:4 So Abram left, ¹²  just as the Lord had told him to do, ¹³  and Lot went with him. (Now ¹⁴  Abram was 75 years old ¹⁵  when he departed from Haran.) 12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew ¹⁶  Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired ¹⁷  in Haran, and they left for ¹⁸  the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ¹⁹  of Moreh ²⁰  at Shechem. ²¹  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ²²  12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ²³  I will give this land.” So Abram ²⁴  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ²⁵  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ²⁶  12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages ²⁷  down to the Negev. ²⁸ 

12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt ²⁹  to stay for a while ³⁰  because the famine was severe. ³¹