Revelation 9
CHAPTER 9
The fifth trumpet
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star from heaven fall to the earth; and there was given to him the key to the pit of the abyss. 2 And he opened the pit of the abyss and smoke went out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3 And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only such men as do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were told that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented for five months; their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 And in those days men shall seek death and shall in no way find it, and they shall desire to die and death will flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war, and upon their heads as if crowns of gold, and their faces were as men's faces. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women and their teeth were like that of lions. 9 And they had breastplates, like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war. 10 And they have tails like scorpions and stings, and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. 11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he has the name Apollyon.
12 The first Woe is past. Behold, hereafter there come two other woes.
The sixth trumpet
13 And the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel that had one trumpet: Release the four angels that are chained at the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were released, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill a third of all mankind. 16 And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those that sat on them, having breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of sulphur, and heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke and sulphur. 18 By these three illnesses was one third of all mankind killed, by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur, which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails. For their tails are like those of serpents and have heads, and by means of them they wound.
20 And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these illnesses, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood- which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Commentary
9:4 The seal is on the forehead, representing the mind. God identifies who is really His by their attitude of mind. To be spiritually minded is the essence of Christianity.
9:11 Not only does each believer have a guardian Angel, but groups of people on earth, including armies of unbelievers, have a representative Angel in the court of Heaven. We can take comfort from this that man is not alone, but the exact situations we are in on earth are represented accurately before God in Heaven through means of His Angels.
9:20 Demons therefore refer simply to idols, not to any actual cosmic beings.
9:21 These awful judgments aren’t simply the wrath of an offended Deity; their intention is to lead even the wicked people of the last days to repentance. God’s passion is for human repentance; when we repent we therefore so thrill Him.
