The Fifth Trumpet

When the FIFTH ANGEL sounds, a mighty potentate is seen, likened to a star, once having had a place among the heavenly luminaries, but fallen from it:
a star (not ‘fall’ but) fallen from heaven {Rev. 9:1},
to whom the key of the bottomless pit is given; i.e. the abyss where Satan will be imprisoned, not the lake of fire. He opened the abyss; a dense smoke and darkness arose from the pit, and out of the smoke came locusts upon earth, with the power of scorpions. This mission is one of judicial bearing on men, and, perhaps, especially, on the Jews; for they are commanded not to hurt the grass, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. They are not to kill, but to torment them five months. Infliction, and misery without death, characterize this judgment. That these locusts are figurative of Satanic power seems reasonable, from their issuing out of the bottomless pit, their being likened to horses prepared to battle, wearing crowns on their heads, having faces of men, hair of women, and teeth of lions, breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings like the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. They have tails also like scorpions, and have a king over them — the angel of the bottomless pit. All these things mark them as mighty instruments for inflicting torture on men, and sufficiently prove that they are not mere locusts, but devils let loose to grievously torment man. We are told,
In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them {Rev. 9:6}.
What language can more touchingly convey the exquisite suffering of men in those days. It may be much nearer, too, than any of us think! Happy they who are now safely sheltered by the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!
This may be truly called a woe; but terrible woes are yet to come. Accordingly, we are told,
One woe is past, and behold there come two woes more after these things {Rev. 9:12}.