565. Verses 13-19. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two myriads of myriads; and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those that sat on them, having breastplates fiery and hyacinthine and brimstone-like; and the heads of the horses as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, that proceeded out of their mouths. For their power was in their mouth; for their tails were like serpents, and had heads, and with them do they hurt. 13. "And the sixth angel sounded," signifies influx out of heaven manifesting the state of the church at its end, that it is utterly perverted (n. 566); "and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God," signifies revelation from the Lord out of the spiritual heaven (n. 567). 14. "Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet," signifies respecting the perverted state of the church at its very end (n. 568); "Loose the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates," signifies reasonings from the fallacies pertaining to the sensual man, not before received (n. 569); 15. "And the four angels were loosed," signifies license to reason from fallacies (n. 570); "that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year," signifies continually in the state (n. 571); "that they should kill the third part of men," signifies of depriving themselves of all understanding of truth, and thus of spiritual life (n. 572). 16. "And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two myriads of myriads," signifies that the falsities of evil, from which and in favor of which they reason, that conspire against truths of good, are innumerable (n. 573); "and I heard the number of them," signifies their quality perceived (n. 574). 17. "And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those that sat on them," signifies the falsifications of the Word by reasonings from fallacies (n. 575); "having breastplates fiery and hyacinthine and brimstone-like," signifies reasonings combating from the cupidities of the love of self and of the love of the world and from falsities therefrom (n. 576); "and the heads of the horses as the heads of lions," signifies knowledge [scientia] and thought therefrom destructive of truth (n. 577); "and out of their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and brimstone," signifies thoughts and consequent reasonings springing from the love of evil, from the love of falsity, and from the lust of destroying truths and goods by falsities of evil (n. 578). 18. "By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, that proceeded out of their mouths," signifies that all the understanding of truth and the spiritual life therefrom were extinguished by them (n. 579). 19. "For their power was in their mouth," signifies sensual thoughts and reasonings therefrom that have most power with them (n. 580); "for their tails were like serpents, and had heads," signifies that from sensual knowledges [scientifica] which are fallacies, they reason craftily (n. 581); "and with them do they hurt," signifies that they thus pervert the truths and goods of the church (n. 582).