Revelationchapter 9
21 verses · John, by tradition · AD 95 or 96 · Revelation
Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss.
Introduction
John, by tradition, Revelation, Revelation Overview.
John wrote this chapter from Patmos for seven churches in Asia who lived among temples, magic and the threat of war on the eastern frontier. The eagle of chapter 8 had warned of three woes, and here the first two fall. The judgments now strike people instead of land and sea. Listen for how often the chapter says like, as John finds words for creatures no one had seen. Listen for the limits set on each plague, in months, in thirds and in the seal of God. Listen last for the list of sins that no one turns from.
Context
- Who
- Readers who lived on the edge of an empire with a hard eastern frontier and a long memory of locust years
- What
- The fifth and sixth trumpets, the first two woes, bringing locusts from the Abyss and two hundred million horsemen from the Euphrates.
- Where
- Seen by John in exile on the island of Patmos and written for seven churches in the Roman province of Asia.
- When
- Late in the reign of Domitian, about AD 95 on the majority view, with a minority dating the book before AD 70 under Nero.
- Why
- To show the churches that the worst judgments come on command and within limits, and that people can suffer them and still refuse to repent.
Historical context
A locust swarm was a known catastrophe in the eastern Mediterranean. It arrived as a darkening of the sky, stripped every green thing, and left famine behind. Joel had already used a locust invasion as a picture of an army. So the fifth trumpet starts on familiar ground and then goes strange: these locusts do not eat plants, they torment people, and they come up out of a shaft of smoke.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Their king is named twice, in Hebrew and Greek, Abaddon and Apollyon, the Destroyer. Readers in Asia would catch the sound of Apollo, a god with a locust association whose name Domitian's court liked to invoke; the text does not press it, but the resonance was there.
The sixth trumpet releases four angels bound at the great river Euphrates. That river was the Roman empire's eastern boundary and everybody's nightmare line. Beyond it lay Parthia, whose cavalry had destroyed Roman armies, and Rome never securely held it. "An army from beyond the Euphrates" was the first-century equivalent of an air-raid siren.
The number given is two hundred million horsemen, larger than any army the ancient world could imagine, and clearly meant to be. The horses kill with fire and smoke and brimstone out of their mouths and with their tails.
The chapter's saddest line is its last. After all of this, the rest of mankind did not repent of their idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, nor of their murders, sorceries, immorality, or thefts.
Significance
These images told the churches that the horrors coming on the world are not random cruelty, they are released, limited by time and by permission, and even the worst of them are still warnings.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The ending was the sobering part. The first readers lived among neighbors who worshiped statues in temples they could see from their own doorways. The trumpets show that judgment by itself does not soften a hard heart. Something else has to.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Pit Opened: Locusts With a King Named Destroyer
Revelation 9:1-2
the pit of the Abyss: A star fallen from heaven to earth is given the key to the pit of the Abyss, the abussos of Luke 8:31 and 20:1-3. Smoke rises like the smoke of a great furnace, as over Sodom in Genesis 19:28, and darkens the sun as in Joel 2:10.
Revelation 9:1
“And the fifth angel sounded - See the notes on Rev 8:6-7. And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth - This denotes, as was shown in the notes on Rev 8:10, a leader, a military chieftain, a warrior. In the fulfillment of this, as in the former case, we look for the appearance of some mighty prince and warrior, to whom is given power, as it were, to open the bottomless pit, and to summon forth its legions.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Revelation 9:1
“This star belongs to the invisible world. The third woe is occasioned by the dragon cast out of heaven; the second takes place at the loosing of the four angels who were bound in the Euphrates. The first is here brought by the angel of the abyss, which is opened by this star, or holy angel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
like the smoke of a great furnace: The smoke rises like the smoke of a great furnace, the words used of Sodom in Genesis 19:28 and of Sinai in Exodus 19:18. It darkens the sun and the air, and out of it the locusts come in verse 3.
Revelation 9:2
“He opened the bottomless pit - Το φρεαρ της αβυσσου· The pit of the bottomless deep. Some think the angel means Satan, and the bottomless pit hell. Some suppose Mohammed is meant; and Signior Pastorini professes to believe that Luther is intended! There arose a smoke - False doctrine, obscuring the true light of heaven.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:2
“And there arose a smoke out of the pit - The locusts, who afterwards rise out of it, seem to be, as we shall afterwards see, the Persians; agreeable to which, this smoke is their detestable idolatrous doctrine, and false zeal for it, which now broke out in an uncommon paroxysm.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 9:3-4
power like that of the scorpions: Locusts receive power like that of the scorpions, yet are told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree. They strike only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads, the seal of 7:3.
Revelation 9:3
“In the locusts he signifies spiritual and adversarial powers that we see flying around in the air in the manner of locusts for the purpose of harming humankind.”
Ticonius · written before 390 · Commentary on the Apocalypse 9:3patristic
the seal of God on their foreheads: The locusts are told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, so the harm falls on people alone. The seal that spares the rest is the seal of 7:3 on their foreheads.
Revelation 9:4
“And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing. He shows that the locusts are men, who are sent not to harm the grass, but men. For grass here is simply understood as men.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 9:4
“They should not hurt the grass - Neither the common people, the men of middling condition, nor the nobles. However, this appears rather to refer to the prudent counsels of a military chief, not to destroy the crops and herbage of which they might have need in their campaigns. Which have not the seal of God - All false, hypocritical, and heterodox Christians.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 9:4
“Therefore, not natural and ordinary locusts. Their natural instinct is supernaturally restrained to mark the judgment as altogether divine. those men which--Greek, "the men whosoever." in, &c.--Greek, "upon their forehead." Thus this fifth trumpet is proved to follow the sealing in Re 7:1-8, under the sixth seal.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 9:5-6
torment them for five months: The locusts are not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, about the life of a locust swarm. The pain is like the stinging of a scorpion, and men will seek death and will not find it.
Revelation 9:5
“And to them it was given - There is here the same indefiniteness as in the former verse, the impersonal verb being here also used. The writer does not say by whom this power was given, whether by God, or by the leader of the host. It may be admitted, however, that the most natural interpretation is to suppose that it was given them by God, and that this was the execution of his purpose in this case.”
they will long to die: Gill reads the men who seek death as men who long to die, as Job did, and cites Jeremiah 8:3, where death is chosen. He sets the torment of verse 5 in the days of the Saracen armies. The locusts may torment and may not kill.
Revelation 9:6
“And in those days men shall seek death,.... Or desire to die, as Job did: and shall not find it; or shall not die: and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jer 8:3. The ravages of the Saracens, their incursions, and the invasions by them, struck such terror into the inhabitants of divers parts of the empire, that they made death more eligible to them than life.”
Revelation 9:7-9
horses prepared for battle: John piles up likenesses, horses prepared for battle, something like crowns of gold, faces like the faces of men, and teeth like those of lions. The repeated like marks a vision straining human language.
Revelation 9:7
“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses,.... The heads of locusts, especially of some of them, are very much like the heads of horses: and here they are compared to horses prepared unto battle; as they are in Joe 2:4. The horse is a warlike creature, swift, strong, and courageous, Job 39:21. Locusts sometimes have appeared in the form of armies, and have marched in great order with their leaders before them, and have pitched their camps very regularly; see Joe 2:7; of which we have lately had an account from Transylvania in our public papers.”
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:7
“The Persians excelled in horsemanship. And on their heads are as it were crowns - Turbans. And their faces are as the faces of men - Friendly and agreeable.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
teeth like those of lions: The locusts have hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions. Joel 1:6 gives the invading locust army a lion's teeth, and John's picture builds on it.
Revelation 9:8
“Hair as the hair of women - No razor passes upon their flesh. Their hair long, and their beards unshaven. Their teeth were as the teeth of lions - They are ferocious and cruel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the roar of many horses and chariots: The locusts had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and Albert Barnes notes that a locust's breast is covered by a hard plate. Their wings roar like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle, as Joel 2:5 describes the locust army.
Revelation 9:9
“And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron,.... Alluding to the hard skin of the locusts, with which nature has fenced it (q); see Joe 2:8; and denotes the armour with which the Saracens were accoutred: and if to be understood of the western locusts, the hardness of their hearts, their seared consciences, or their protection by the princes of the earth, the many privileges they are possessed of, the laws made in their favour, and for their security; their breastplates were not breastplates of righteousness, faith, and love, nor in defence of truth, but against it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:9
“And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron - Hard, horny, impenetrable, as if they were made of iron. The locust has a firm and hard cuticle on the forepart of the breast, which serves for a shield or defense while it moves in the thorny and furzy vegetation. On those which John saw this was especially hard and horny, and would thus be well adapted to be an emblem of the breastplates of iron commonly worn by ancient warriors. The meaning is, that the warriors referred to would be well clad with defensive armor.”
Revelation 9:10-11
They had tails with stingers: Their tails with stingers like scorpions hurt people for five months, and they serve a king, the angel of the Abyss. His name is given in two tongues, Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek, both meaning Destroyer, and a king makes the swarm an army.
Revelation 9:10
“They had tails like unto scorpions - This may refer to the consequences of their victories. They infected the conquered with their pernicious doctrines. Their power was to hurt men five months - The locusts make their principal ravages during the five summer months. But probably these may be prophetic months, as above, in Rev 9:5 - 150 years.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:10
“And they have tails like scorpions - That is, each tail is like a scorpion, not like the tail of a scorpion. To hurt the unsealed men five months - Five prophetic months; that is, seventy-nine common years So long did these calamities last.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
His name in Hebrew is Abaddon: Wesley notes that Abaddon and Apollyon both mean destroyer, and reads the angel of the Abyss as a king set apart from the dragon. Barnes notes that locusts are not ruled by a king. Proverbs 30:27 says locusts have no king.
Revelation 9:11
“And they have over them a king - One by whom they are peculiarly directed and governed. His name is Abaddon - Both this and Apollyon signify a destroyer. By this he is distinguished from the dragon, whose proper name is Satan.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:11
“And they had a king over them - A ruler who marshalled their hosts. Locusts often, and indeed generally, move in bands, though they do not appear to be under the direction of anyone as a particular ruler or guide. In this case it struck John as a remarkable peculiarity that they had a king - a king who, it would seem, had the absolute control, and to whom was to be traced all the destruction which would ensue from their emerging from the bottomless pit.”
Revelation 9:12-14
The first woe has passed: , the first of three announced at 8:13. At the sixth trumpet a voice from the golden altar orders the release of the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. It is the altar of the prayers at 8:3-5.
Revelation 9:12
“One woe is past,.... One of the three woe trumpets, the first of them; that is, in the vision which John had of it, not the thing itself designed by it: and behold there come two woes more hereafter; under the blowing of the sixth and seventh trumpets.”
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:12
“Greek, "The one woe." hereafter--Greek, "after these things." I agree with ALFORD and DE BURGH, that these locusts from the abyss refer to judgments about to fall on the ungodly immediately before Christ's second advent. None of the interpretations which regard them as past, are satisfactory.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Loosed at the Euphrates: Two Hundred Million Horsemen
the four horns of the golden altar: Wesley reads the golden altar before God as the altar of incense in heaven, where the tabernacle altar had four horns. The prayers of the saints rose from it in 8:3. Barnes reads the voice from the altar as heard in heaven, with the temple as its picture.
Revelation 9:13
“And the sixth angel sounded - See the notes on Rev 8:2, Rev 8:7. And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God - In the language used here there is an allusion to the temple, but the scene is evidently laid in heaven. The temple in its arrangements was designed, undoubtedly, to be in important respects a symbol of heaven, and this idea constantly occurs in the Scriptures. Compare the Epistle to the Hebrews passim.”
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:13
“And the sixth angel sounded - Under this angel goes forth the second woe. And I heard a voice from the four corners of the golden altar - This golden altar is the heavenly pattern of the Levitical altar of incense.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Matthew Henry reads the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates as the angels of judgment held far away until God releases them. Clarke lists the readings he knew. Some named the Arabs, Saracens, Tartars or Turks, and others the four generals of Vespasian.
Revelation 9:14
“The instruments that God makes use of to punish a people may sometimes lie at a great distance from them, so that no danger may be apprehended from them. These four messengers of divine judgment lay bound in the river Euphrates, a great way from the European nations.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:14
“Loose the four angels - These four angels bound - hitherto restrained, in the Euphrates, are by some supposed to be the Arabs, the Saracens, the Tartars, or the Turks; by others, Vespasian’s four generals, one in Arabia, one in Africa, one in Alexandria, and one in Palestine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 9:15-16
prepared for this hour and day: The four angels had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year, a time fixed, to kill a third of mankind. John says of the army of two hundred million, I heard their number, and no army of the ancient world came near it.
Revelation 9:15
“The time of their military operations and executions is limited to an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year. Prophetic characters of time are hardly to be understood by us; but in general the time is fixed to an hour, when it shall begin and when it shall end; and how far the execution shall prevail, even to a third part of the inhabitants of the earth.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:15
“And the four angels were loosed - Who had this mighty host under restraint. The loosening of the angels was, in fact, also a letting loose of all these hosts, that they might accomplish the work which they were commissioned to do. Which were prepared - See Rev 9:7. The word used here properly refers to what is made ready, suited up, arranged for anything: as persons prepared for a journey, horses for battle, a road for travelers, food for the hungry, a house to live in, etc. See Robinson’s Lexicon, sub. voce Ἑτοιμάζω Hetoimazō.”
I heard their number: Clarke notes that no army of two hundred million was ever gathered, and allows that the number may mean a host too great to count. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the horses and riders as probably from the Abyss. John heard their number.
Revelation 9:16
“Two hundred thousand thousand - Δυο μυριαδες μυριαδων· Two myriads of myriads; that is, two hundred millions; an army that was never yet got together from the foundation of the world, and could not find forage in any part of the earth. Perhaps it only means vast numbers, multitudes without number. Such a number might be literally true of the locusts. Those who will have their particular system supported by the images in this most obscure book, tell us that the number here means all the soldiers that were employed in this war, from its commencement to its end!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 9:16
“And the number of the horsemen was two hundred millions - Not that so many were ever brought into the field at once, but (if we understand the expression literally) in the course of "the hour, and day, and month, and year." So neither were "the third part of men killed" at once, but during that course of years.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 9:16
The hosts here are evidently, from their numbers and their appearance (Re 9:17), not merely human hosts, but probably infernal, though constrained to work out God's will (compare Re 9:1, 2). and I heard--A, B, Aleph, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and CYPRIAN omit "and."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 9:17-19
The riders had breastplates: The riders' breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur match the fire, smoke, and sulfur, which kill A third of mankind. Their tails were like snakes, having heads, so this cavalry, like the locusts, is a host beyond nature.
Revelation 9:17
“And thus I saw the horses in the vision - That is, he saw them as he proceeds to describe them, for the word “thus” - οὕτως houtōs - refers to what follows. Compare Robinson’s Lexicon on the word (b), and see Mat 1:18; Mat 2:5; Joh 21:1; Heb 4:4. Prof. Stuart, however, refers to what precedes. The meaning, as it seems to me, is, that he fixed his attention on the appearance of the immense army - the horses and their riders, and proceeded to describe them as they struck him.”
the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the oldest manuscripts read plagues, as the Berean text does: the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur. These proceeded from their mouths, and by them A third of mankind was killed.
Revelation 9:18
“By these three - Three things - explained immediately as referring to the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone. Was the third part of men killed - See the notes on Rev 8:7-12, on each of which verses we have notices of calamities that came upon the third part of the race, of the sea, of rivers, etc. We are not to suppose that this is to be taken literally, but the description is given as it appeared to John.”
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 9:18
By these three--A, B, C, and Aleph read (apo for kupo), "From"; implying the direction whence the slaughter came; not direct instrumentality as "by" implies. A, B, C, Aleph also add "plagues" after "three." English Version reading, which omits it, is not well supported. by the fire--Greek, "owing to the fire," literally, "out of."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
their tails were like snakes: Wesley reads the power in the mouths and in the tails as riders who harm while they fight and while they turn back. Bede reads the tails like snakes as false teachers. With rulers behind them, they inflict more harm.
Revelation 9:19
“For the power of these horses is in their mouths, and in their tails - Their riders fight retreating as well as advancing: so that their rear is as terrible as their front. For their tails are like serpents, having heads - Not like the tails of serpents only.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Revelation 9:19
“For their tails are like serpents, etc. False teachers, like the ancient serpent who deceived man, supported by the patronage of rulers, harm more than if they persuaded only by speech. He sits, he says, in ambush with the rich (Ps. X).”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Revelationpatristic
Revelation 9:19
“For their power is in their mouth - That is, as described in the fire, smoke, and brimstone that proceeded out of their mouths. What struck the seer as remarkable on looking on the symbol was, that this immense destruction seemed to proceed out of their mouths. It was not that they trampled down their enemies; nor that they destroyed them with the sword, the bow, or the spear: it was some new and remarkable power in warfare - in which the destruction seemed to proceed from fire, and smoke, and sulphur issuing from the mouths of the horses themselves.”
Revelation 9:19
“Mohammed, doubtless, is a forerunner of him, but not the exhaustive fulfiller of the prophecy here: Satan will, probably, towards the end, bring out all the powers of hell for the last conflict (see on Re 9:20, on "devils"; compare Re 9:1, 2, 17, 18). with them--with the serpent heads and their venomous fangs.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 9:20-21
did not repent of the works: Those who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent, and the first sin named is worship of demons and idols. Such idols cannot see or hear or walk, the mockery of Psalm 115:4-7, and four more sins follow, among them sorcery or pharmakeia.
Revelation 9:20
“Of the idols which the Gentiles think to be gods. In the Wisdom of Solomon: "All the idols of the nations they counted gods, which neither have the use of their eyes for seeing, nor their nostrils to receive breath, nor their ears for hearing, nor the fingers on their hands for handling; but their feet also are slow to walk. For man made them; and he who has borrowed his breath, he fashioned them. But no man will be able to fashion a god like to himself.”
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jewspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Revelation 9:20
“Especially the idols made by their hands. Compare Re 13:14, 15, "the image of the beast" Re 19:20. that they should not--So B reads. But A, C, and Aleph read "that they shall not": implying a prophecy of certainty that it shall be so. devils--Greek, "demons" which lurk beneath the idols which idolaters worship.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 9:20
“That they should not worship devils - The invocation of departed saints, whether true, or false, or doubtful, or forged, crept early into the Christian church, and was carried farther and farther; and who knows how many who are invoked as saints are among evil, not good, angels; or how far devils have mingled with such blind worship, and with the wonders wrought on those occasions?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 9:20
“Yet repented not - The commission which these horsemen had was against idolaters; and though multitudes of them were destroyed, yet the residue continued their senseless attachment to dumb idols, and therefore heavier judgments might be expected. These things are supposed to refer to the desolation brought upon the Greek Church by the Ottomans, who entirely ruined that Church and the Greek empire.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they did not repent of their murder: In the Greek, the word for sexual immorality is singular and murder, sorcery and theft are plural, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. Clarke reads the murder as the killing of the Albigenses and Waldenses. Gill reads it as the blood of the saints.
Revelation 9:21
“Neither repented they of their murders,.... Of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, with whose blood the western antichrist is made drunk, and which will be found in her, and for which she is answerable.”
3 more voices on this verse
Revelation 9:21
“Neither repented they of their murders - Their cruelties towards the genuine followers of God, the Albigenses, and Waldenses, and others, against whom they published crusades, and hunted them down, and butchered them in the most shocking manner. The innumerable murders by the horrible inquisition need not be mentioned.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 9:21
“The most formidable powers have limits set them, which they cannot transgress. When God's judgments are in the earth, he expects the inhabitants thereof should repent of sin, and learn righteousness. Impenitency under divine judgments is an iniquity that will be the ruin of sinners; for where God judges he will overcome.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Revelation 9:21
“The worship of images was established in the East in A.D. 842. fornication--singular: whereas the other sins are in the plural. Other sins are perpetrated at intervals: those lacking purity of heart indulge in one perpetual fornication [BENGEL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: Judgments from the Abyss that fall on the ungodly just before the second coming of Christ, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Eight likenesses in four verses | The word like appears eight times in verses 7 to 10. John builds the locusts one part at a time from things his readers knew. The likenesses are horses, crowns, faces, hair, teeth, breastplates, the roar of chariots and the tails of scorpions. He uses the same method for the horses of verses 17 and 19.the site's count of the Berean text, the verses of Revelation 9 in the store, translation id 3, the Berean Standard Bible. | Revelation 9:7, Revelation 9:8, Revelation 9:9, Revelation 9:10 |
| The locust army of Joel | Joel 1 and 2 describe a plague of locusts as an invading army on the day of the LORD. Joel 1:6 gives the invader the teeth of a lion. Joel 2:4 says the locusts look like horses, and Joel 2:5 compares their noise to chariots. John Gill hears Joel 2:4 in the horses prepared for battle of verse 7.John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 1746 to 1748, on Revelation 9:7. | Revelation 9:7, Revelation 9:8, Revelation 9:9 |
| The king with two names | Verse 11 names the king of the Abyss twice, Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek. John Wesley notes that both names mean destroyer, and holds that the name sets this king apart from the dragon, whose name is Satan. Proverbs 30:27 says that locusts have no king.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755, on Revelation 9:11. | Revelation 9:11 |
| Idols that cannot see | Verse 20 describes idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk. The mockery is old, from Psalm 115:4 to 7 and Daniel 5:23. Cyprian gathers the same charge from the Wisdom of Solomon, where the idols have eyes that do not see and feet slow to walk.Cyprian, Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Treatise 12, 258, on Revelation 9:20. | Revelation 9:20 |
How the chapter is built
5 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapter 8 ended with the eagle's warning of three woes, and chapter 9 gives the first two. Verses 1 to 11 are the fifth trumpet, with the fallen star, the smoke and the locusts under their king. Verse 12 marks the first woe as past. Verses 13 to 19 are the sixth trumpet, with the voice from the altar, the four angels at the Euphrates and the cavalry. Verses 20 and 21 close on the survivors who do not repent. The second woe is declared past only at Revelation 11:14, after the interlude of chapter 10 and the two witnesses.
How the locusts and the horsemen have been read
This chapter has drawn many historical identifications. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reject the past fulfilments they knew. They read the locusts as judgments just before Christ returns (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 9:12). John Wesley reads the locusts as the Persians (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on 9:2). John Gill reads verse 6 of the Saracen raids (Exposition of the New Testament, on 9:6). Adam Clarke lists the Arabs, Saracens, Tartars and Turks for the four angels of verse 14. He also lists the four generals of Vespasian in the Jewish war (Commentary on the Bible, on 9:14). Matthew Henry reports the view of Joseph Mede that verse 17 foretells the great guns of the Turks (Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 9:17). Ticonius reads the locusts as spiritual powers (Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 9:3). Bede reads the serpent tails as false teachers backed by rulers (Commentary on Revelation, on 9:19).
Where to go deeper
The book as a whole has its page at /book/revelation. The three series of judgments are set side by side at /featured/seals-trumpets-bowls. The sealed servants of verse 4 are at /featured/the-144000, and the four ways of reading the book are at /featured/four-schools-of-revelation. The Abyss, locusts in Scripture and the Euphrates are listed as owed feature pages.
Keep studying
Studies7
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Revelation 9:12; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 1746 to 1748, on Revelation 9:6 and Ticonius, Commentary on the Apocalypse, 390, on Revelation 9:3.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Andreas of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.