Vision Two - The Seven Trumpets
Revelation Chapter 9

The fifth trumpet - locust (9:1-9:12)

1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

This "fallen star" is most likely the same being as the star named Wormwood of the third trumpet, and he will later be identified in this passage as the Destroyer. Some interpret this person as Satan, the "fallen angel." I disagree with that interpretation, because the Destroyer operates under God's directive, while Satan, always the Deceiver, fights against it.

This bottomless pit was thought to be an underworld below Hades, where demons were kept. In Luke 8:31, Jesus talks with the "legion" of demons possessing a man, and they ask that they be sent into a herd of pigs, rather than be sent back to the abyss. With that interpretation, first Century believers would have understood that God locked the demons away from earth, but he gave the key to the abyss to the fallen star.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The normal problem with a swarm of locust, as in the eighth plague Moses called on Egypt (Exodus 10:12-15) is that they ate every plant. In this case, however, the target is people rather than plants, emphasized by the "authority of scorpions," which were considered as bad an enemy to man as snakes. The parallel to the Egyptian plague continues with the setting aside of God's people from the effect of the locust.

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

The normal life expectancy of locust were five months, born in the spring and dying at the end of the summer. However, we know John better than to leave this number with a biological interpretation! The number "five" usually means a "small amount," somewhat similar to our "handful." Uses of the number five in Jesus' parables include five talents placed in the care of a servant, and two sets of five bridesmaids watching for the groom.

Notice the repetition of the limits God imposes on these demonic locusts -- God gives the key to the fallen angel, and the locust are limited in how long they can torture, in who they can attack, and are forbidden from eating what would be their natural foods. God is allowing this evil for a purpose -- and God is in full control of circumstances that horrify us!

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

This circumstance has parallels in the Hebrew literature, also. See Job 3:20-26 and Jeremiah 8:3 for references to not finding relief in death.

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; ...

This tribulation, and the imagery that John calls into our sight, closely follows the judgement for unfaithful Judah given in the first two chapters of Joel. Joel foretells in the first chapter that the locust will eat everything, and in chapter two, expands this vision of destruction by describing demonic war horses, with fire going before them and behind them. The appearance of a locust is similar enough to a horse that one German word for locust, Heupferd, literally means "hay-horse," and an Italian word for locust, cavaletta, means "a little horse."

... and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

What they wore were not actually crowns of gold, but what looked like victors wreaths made of something that looked like gold. The human resemblance of the locusts' faces stressed intelligence and intent, adding terror to this demonic plague. They had hair as long as a woman's hair might be, but the phrase distinguishes that this hair is not gender-specific. Lions' teeth indicated a voraciousness to this torment.

9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

The thorax (midsection) of the locust was as solid as iron. Again see Joel 2:6-9 for the unstoppable onrush of demonic war horses into battle -- the image, just like swarms of locust, was of an invasion impossible to stop.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

The Greek text actually states that these locust had the power to harm people similar to the harm caused by the stinging tails of scorpions. The Greek does not actually say where the stingers were located, but that point really isn't significant. Locusts with stinging tails fits the pattern -- the war horses to come in the sixth trumpet have tails that are like snakes, so that the horses can attack people from both the front and the back.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, [meaning "Destruction"] but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [meaning "Destroyer"].

There is an interesting contrast here with Proverbs 30:27, where it is noted that the locust have no king!

The Hebrew name Abaddon appears in Job 26:6, Psalms 88:11, and Proverbs 15:11, and in each of these cases, it refers to a location, as another word for Hades. The fallen star Wormwood is here revealed to be an angel in charge of the bottomless pit. This description parallels the fourth horseman Death and his companion, Hades, in the first vision. This also parallels the tenth plague of Moses against the Egyptians, with the death of firstborn sons (Exodus 11:4-8). The Lord carries out this plague, but in Exodus 12:23, God assures Moses that he "will not suffer the destroyer (shawkhath) to come" to those houses marked by the Passover lamb's blood.

There also may be an intended reference in the name "Apollyon" to Emperor Domitian, who claimed to be a reincarnation of the Roman god Apollo. If so, this was an "inside" reference, for Romans would not have confused the two names. Rather than a "destroyer," they thought of Apollo as the god of the sun, and associated him with music, poetry, prophetic oracles, and healing.

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Strike one!

The sixth trumpet - army (9:13-9:19)

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

The four horns were at the corners of the incense altar in heaven.

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

The similarity of the four angels to the first horseman is found in geography -- the Euphrates River was the border between the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire. The fact of four angels leading the cavalry also parallels the set of four horsemen. The word "release" is the same primitive Greek word luo that was used in 5:2 and 5:5 to "break" the seals, and is used elsewhere in the New Testament to mean undoing sandals, untying a donkey, and pardoning a prisoner. Morris and Lindsey interpret by "release" that these were fallen angels, Satan's followers, forbidden to act by God until the right time. Instead, I agree with Wall and Barclay, who interpret these angels as servants of God, similar to Wormwood, kept in reserve for this purpose. In either event, the sameness of the Greek verb for the seals and these bound angels emphasizes the parallel of God's will unfolding on earth.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

This time, there are four angels instead of one, indicating the source of the death included earthly evil no longer kept in restraint. This earthly root may also be why those with God's mark aren't spared from this tribulation, although Wall believes the marking of the believers in the fifth trumpet still applies. In any event, God restrains the killing to a third, and God has purposed the exact time this is to take place, down to a specific hour, so this tribulation is still a "warning shot." God escalates his efforts to reach lost people from the fifth trumpet to the sixth, to the point where I believe God allows his followers to be killed -- and join the celebration in heaven -- so as to provide yet one more opportunity to call unbelievers to repent.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

This count, 200 million, is an incredible number, far exceeding the number of people in the world at that time, and beyond John's ability to estimate, thus he had to be told. This number derived from the number in Revelation 5:11, where the number of angels in heaven was literally in Hebrew "ten thousand times ten thousand." This was correctly translated into English as "thousands upon thousands." In the case of this army, John doubles that earlier number, so 2 x 10,000 x 10,000 = 200,000,000.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth [sapphire], and brimstone [sulfur]: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

Notice the reference "in my vision" -- John almost never reminds the audience that this is a vision, unlike Daniel and other apocryphal texts that continually reference the vision. At this point, with this image, John wanted to be certain that the symbolic meaning was understood, that the literal imagery didn't interfere.

By this point, the duality in the images in the fifth trumpet and the sixth trumpet are clear, down to the double-ended animals torturing and killing a third of humanity.

The people reject God (9:20-9:21)

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

This is the crucial point of the entire vision. Why did God allow the locust and the army? It was one more attempt to give humanity every opportunity to repent, but many people would not. So many people did not repent in the time of John the Baptist, or of Jesus, or from the preachings of Peter, Paul, Apollos, Barnabus, James, or any of their contemporary evangelists. God still goes to extraordinary lengths to get people to turn from the destruction of sin.