The Four Angels at the Euphrates

Read aloud

The sixth angel blows his trumpet, and John hears a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God. The voice tells the sixth angel to release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.

The four angels have been prepared for the hour, day, month, and year when they will kill a third of humanity. John hears the number of mounted troops—two hundred million. The riders wear breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The horses have heads like lions and tails like snakes with heads. Fire, smoke, and sulfur pour from their mouths and kill a third of humanity.

The rest of humanity does not repent of the works of their hands, worshiping demons and idols, or of their murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, and thefts. The trumpet shows judgment and also the stubborn refusal to turn from the practices that destroy people.

The four angels are released at a time already prepared, and the mounted forces are given authority to kill a third of humanity. The scale is terrifying, but the vision still presents judgment as permitted rather than chaotic. It does not turn the Euphrates into a code for a modern army or give readers a map of current events.

The final sentence is the moral shock: the survivors do not repent of the works of their hands. Judgment is visible, but idols, murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft remain defended. Ask what practices can become so familiar that a household protects them even after their damage is clear. Repentance means turning, not merely feeling alarm.