Revelation 9

The fifth and sixth trumpets bring terrifying judgments on a world that opposes God. First, demonic locusts rise from the Abyss to torment people. Then a vast army kills a third of mankind. Even so, the survivors refuse to repent, which shows how hard the human heart can become.

Revelation 9:1

At the fifth trumpet John sees a star fallen from heaven. It is given the key to the Abyss. The star is a personal being, and it acts only with permission. Its authority is lent to it and never its own.

BSA: key (“a symbol of authority”): The key shows that the Abyss is opened or shut only by one who is given the right, so evil here acts on a leash. Abyss (“a deep, seemingly bottomless pit”): It is pictured as a prison of unknown depth where dark powers are held.

Greek: ἄβυσσος (abyssos, G12) — “bottomless deep.” The word means a place without a floor. It is where rebellious spirits are confined, and the demons in Luke 8:31 begged not to be sent there.

See also: Luke 8:31; Revelation 20:1-3.

Revelation 9:2

When the pit is opened, smoke pours out like smoke from a huge furnace. It blots out the sun and the air. Evil brings darkness. What comes from the Abyss dims the light and life that God made good.

BSA: darkened (“made less visible, obscured”): The smoke does not just frighten. It hides the light and makes the world a place where people cannot see their way.

See also: Joel 2:2; Exodus 10:21-22.

Revelation 9:3

Out of the smoke come locusts, and they are given the sting of scorpions. Locusts recall the plague on Egypt and the army of locusts in Joel. These are no ordinary insects. They come from the pit, and their power is granted to them.

See also: Exodus 10:12-15; Joel 2:1-11.

Revelation 9:4

These locusts are unlike natural ones. They may not touch the grass or trees, only people without God’s seal on their foreheads. God’s own people are marked as his and protected, even while judgment falls around them.

BSA: seal (“mark, sign”): A seal marked ownership and safekeeping, so those sealed belong to God.

See also: Revelation 7:3; Ezekiel 9:4.

Revelation 9:5

The locusts may torment but not kill, and only for five months. Both the limit and the length are set from above. The pain is compared to a scorpion’s sting. Five months is roughly the life span of a locust season.

BSA: torment (“inflict severe pain or distress”): The aim here is suffering that presses people toward facing God, and not yet their destruction.

Revelation 9:6

The pain is so great that people long to die, yet death slips away from them. It is a bleak picture of a world cut off from God. Those who have clung to life apart from him find that they cannot even escape through death.

BSA: escape (“flee, run away”): Death itself seems to run from them, so the relief they crave is denied.

See also: Job 3:20-21; Hosea 10:8.

Revelation 9:7-10

John describes the locusts with images of war: horses ready for battle, golden crowns, human faces, long hair, lion’s teeth, iron breastplates, roaring wings and scorpion tails. He says ’like’ again and again. He is using human words for something beyond human experience. The picture is of fierce, cunning, unstoppable power.

BSA: prepared for battle (“war, a series of conflicts”): These creatures are an army, with a plan and a purpose. stingers (“sharp points, kendra”): The word means a goad or sharp point, so the sting is deliberate and piercing.

Greek: ὅμοιοι (homoioi, G3664) — “like, similar to.” John keeps using this word of likeness. He is saying the creatures resemble these things, not that they are them.

Revelation 9:11

The locusts have a king, the angel of the Abyss. His names in Hebrew and Greek both mean Destroyer. The one who leads them is bent on ruin, in sharp contrast to Christ, who came to give life.

BSA: Abaddon (“the destroyer, devastator”): The name means destruction, and tells us what this king is about. Apollyon (“the destroyer, one who brings ruin”): The Greek name says the same thing again, so the message reaches every reader.

Greek: Ἀπολλύων (Apollyōn, G623) — “Destroyer.” It comes from a verb meaning to destroy or ruin. The Hebrew Abaddon appears in the Old Testament as a place of destruction.

See also: Job 26:6; John 10:10.

Revelation 9:12

One woe is over, and two remain. A woe is a cry of grief over coming calamity. The count reminds the reader that the judgments follow an ordered course, and that more is still to come.

BSA: woe (“expression of grief or sorrow”): It is a cry of sorrow over what is coming on a world that will not turn back.

Revelation 9:13-14

At the sixth trumpet a voice speaks from the horns of the golden altar before God. This is the altar of incense, where the prayers of God’s people rise. The judgments answer those prayers. The voice commands that four angels bound at the Euphrates be released.

BSA: horns (“symbols of strength and power”): The projections at the altar’s corners stood for strength and for refuge. bound (“tied, fastened, restricted”): These angels had been held back until the command was given.

Greek: δεδεμένους (dedemenous, G1210) — “having been bound.” The word means held in restraint. They are not free agents but held until the appointed hour.

See also: Revelation 8:3-5; Exodus 30:1-3.

Revelation 9:15

The four angels have been kept ready for an exact hour, day, month and year. Nothing here is accidental. God holds the timetable of history, and they kill a third of mankind only when he lets them.

BSA: prepared (“made ready”): The preparation was done beforehand, which shows God’s control over the timing.

See also: Acts 17:31.

Revelation 9:16

John hears the size of the cavalry: two hundred million. The number is huge, far beyond any army of his day, and means a force no one can resist. John stresses that he heard it, as one who stands amazed.

BSA: two hundred million (“twice ten thousand times ten thousand, a myriad of myriads”): The Greek gives a staggering figure, built on the largest number the ancient world had a word for.

Revelation 9:17

In his vision John sees horses with lions’ heads breathing fire, smoke and sulfur, and riders in fiery red, deep blue and yellow armor. These are the colors of the very things the horses breathe. The picture is of terror and judgment, close to the fire and sulfur that fell on Sodom.

BSA: sulfur (“signifying divine wrath”): Burning sulfur is a familiar sign of God’s judgment in Scripture.

See also: Genesis 19:24.

Revelation 9:18-19

A third of mankind dies by the three plagues from the horses’ mouths: fire, smoke and sulfur. Their tails are like snakes with heads that bite. Harm comes from both ends. There is no safe place to stand before such an army.

BSA: plagues (“blows, wounds”): The word speaks of strokes that strike and wound, and calls to mind the plagues on Egypt. snakes (“serpents, symbolizing sly cunning or malice”): The serpent points back to the ancient enemy and to a harm that is both cunning and deadly.

Revelation 9:20

Those who survive still do not repent. They keep worshiping demons and idols that cannot see, hear or walk. Judgment alone does not change the heart. People can look at disaster and still cling to the lifeless things they have made.

BSA: repent (“change their mind, turn away”): Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a changed direction, and these people refused both.

Greek: μετενόησαν (metenoēsan, G3340) — “changed their mind, repented.” The verb joins ‘after’ and ’think’, so it means to think again and turn. Here the whole world is given the chance and refuses.

See also: Psalm 115:4-8; Daniel 5:23.

Revelation 9:21

The chapter closes with a list of sins people hold on to: murder, sorcery, sexual immorality and theft. They show a world that turns from God and then turns against others. Yet the long patience of God, who warns before he judges, shows his mercy.

BSA: sorcery (“magic, use of spells”): The word is linked with drugs and spells, and points to dealing with dark powers instead of God.

See also: Revelation 16:9; Romans 2:4.