Revelation · chapter 9 of 22
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Revelation 9 tells of the fifth and sixth trumpets, the first and second woes. With the fifth, a fallen star opens the abyss and locusts like scorpions torment for five months those who lack the seal of God. With the sixth, four angels are released at the Euphrates and a vast army of horsemen kills a third of mankind. Even so, the survivors do not repent of their idols or their deeds.
After the first four trumpets and the warning of three woes, this chapter describes the first two. The images are the most unsettling in the book and have been read in many ways. Beyond the details, the chapter shows the destructive force of evil under limits God sets and the hardness of heart of those who refuse to repent.
When the fifth trumpet sounds, John sees a star that has fallen from heaven to earth, who is given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. When he opens it, smoke rises like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air are darkened. Out of the smoke come locusts given power like that of scorpions, with orders not to harm the grass or the trees but only people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads (vv. 1-4).
They are allowed to torment for five months, but not to kill. They look like horses prepared for battle, with crowns, human faces, hair like women's hair, teeth like lions' teeth, breastplates of iron, the sound of wings and tails like scorpions. People will seek death and not find it. Their king is the angel of the bottomless pit, called in Hebrew Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon. The first woe has passed (vv. 5-12).
When the sixth trumpet sounds, a voice comes from the four horns of the golden altar telling the angel to release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates. They are released, prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year, to kill a third of mankind. John hears that the number of the army of horsemen is twice ten thousand times ten thousand. The horses have heads like lions' heads, and fire, smoke and sulfur come out of their mouths; their tails, like serpents, wound (vv. 13-19).
The chapter ends on a bitter note: the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands. They kept worshiping demons and idols that cannot see or hear or walk, and they did not repent of their murders, sorceries, immorality or thefts (vv. 20-21).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The locusts are told to harm only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. It connects with chapter 7: the sealed are protected, and the power of evil has limits.
The locusts' king is the angel of the abyss, named Abaddon or Apollyon, meaning destroyer. The text identifies the source of destruction: it is not a neutral force but an evil power with a name.
The four angels are released prepared for a precise hour, day, month and year. The precision signals that even judgment moves within a timetable set by God.
The survivors do not repent of idolatry, murder, sorcery, immorality or theft. The passage shows that judgment alone does not change the heart, and that hardness can persist to the end.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. — Revelation 9:1
Answer: The grass, the trees and anyone who has the seal of God on his forehead. — Revelation 9:4
Answer: Five months. — Revelation 9:5
Answer: In Hebrew, Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. — Revelation 9:11
Answer: At the great river Euphrates. — Revelation 9:14
Answer: They did not repent of the works of their hands or of their sins. — Revelation 9:20-21
Revelation 9 can be intimidating, but its practical teaching is clear. Evil has real power, yet it is limited and does not reach those who belong to God in the way it reaches others. A group can talk about how to live realistically in the face of evil without falling into fear or into curiosity about the details.
The end of the chapter is a warning for us: one can see suffering and still not repent. Repentance requires humility before God, not just hard circumstances. Examining which modern idols (money, success, image) may have an influence we do not want to admit is a concrete application.
Revelation 9 closes with people refusing to repent after the second woe. In chapter 10 there is a pause before the seventh trumpet: a mighty angel appears with a little open scroll and John is sent to prophesy again.
There are several readings. Some see real demonic forces that torment those who turn from God; others, symbols of invading armies or social evils; and others, an image of the locust plague of Exodus and Joel raised to cosmic scale. The text stresses that their power is limited and temporary.
The text describes it as a star fallen from heaven that receives the key to the abyss. Some identify it with a fallen angel or Satan; others, with an angel carrying out an order from God. What stands out is that it acts only with the key it is given.
John says he heard the number: twice ten thousand times ten thousand. Some take it as a literal figure or an enormous demonic army, others as a way of saying a countless multitude. Either way, it underscores the scale of the judgment.