Revelation 9
The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets • The Abyss • The Destroyer • The Euphrates Army
1. Immediate Context
The first four trumpets in Chapter 8 brought devastating physical judgments upon the land of Judea (war, famine, economic collapse). Chapter 9 introduces the first two of the three great "Woes"—the fifth and sixth trumpets.
The judgment shifts from external, physical destruction to internal, spiritual madness. The "abyss" is opened, and demonic influence floods the apostate nation. This perfectly mirrors the historical reality of AD 66-70: before the Roman armies breached the walls of Jerusalem, the city was utterly destroyed from the inside by rival factions of Jewish Zealots who acted with suicidal, demonic frenzy, slaughtering their own people and burning their own food supplies.
2. Scripture (WEB)
Source (verbatim): https://ebible.org/web/REV09.htm
2 He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.
3 Then out of the smoke came out locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 They were told that they shouldn’t hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads.
5 They were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a person.
6 In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
7 The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces.
8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.
9 They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war.
10 They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.
11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek, he has the name Apollyon.
12 The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.
13 The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 saying to the sixth angel who had one trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
15 The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind.
16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.
17 Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur.
18 By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.
21 They didn’t repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.
3. Fulfillment Notes
- Not Modern Helicopters: Some of the most famous futurist books of the 20th century claimed these "locusts" with breastplates of iron and the sound of rushing wings were actually Apache attack helicopters, and the "tails that sting" were the tail-rotors. This is a severe abuse of the text. It ignores the explicit Old Testament background (Joel 2) where a devouring army is prophetically styled as a locust swarm.
- The 200 Million Man Army (v. 16): Futurists claim this is the modern Chinese military marching across Asia. However, the Greek word is myriades myriadōn, a Hebrew idiom meaning an uncountable, overwhelmingly massive force. It represents the brutal, unstoppable Roman legions (who heavily utilized auxiliary cavalry from the Euphrates region) marching against Judea.
- The Demonic Madness: The opening of the abyss represents God lifting His restraining hand and turning the apostate nation over to absolute demonic delusion, fulfilling Jesus' warning about the "unclean spirit" returning with seven more (Matthew 12:43-45).
4. Annotations
- star from the sky — Represents a fallen spiritual authority (often identified with Satan or a high-ranking fallen angel) given permission by God to execute judgment.
- the abyss — The holding place of demonic spirits. Opening it unleashes spiritual darkness upon the land.
- five months — Five months is the literal, historical lifespan of a locust swarm (typically May through September). Prophetically, it indicates a specific, highly intense, but strictly limited period of judgment. Historically, the final, most brutal Roman siege of Jerusalem under Titus lasted exactly five months (April to September, AD 70).
- Abaddon / Apollyon — Both names mean "The Destroyer." The apostate Jews chose the "Destroyer" over the Savior, and God gave them what they wanted.
5. Fulfillment Commentary
1) The Smoke of the Abyss (vv. 1–3)
God hands the key of the abyss over to a fallen star, allowing smoke to darken the sun. This is the ultimate spiritual judgment: being handed over to your own depravity. The apostate Jewish leadership had rejected the Holy Spirit (the unpardonable sin), and in response, God allowed the nation to be flooded with demonic delusion.
The Jewish historian Josephus (an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem) recorded that the inhabitants of the city acted as if they were possessed by madness. The Zealot factions inside the city walls slaughtered the moderate citizens, burned their own grain reserves, and turned the holy Temple into a fortress of murder and debauchery. The "smoke" of their own spiritual darkness blinded them to reality.
2) The Scorpion Locusts (vv. 4–11)
These locusts are told not to eat grass (literal locusts eat vegetation), but to torment men. And they are strictly forbidden from harming those with the "seal of God" (the Christians who fled the city).
John borrows this imagery directly from Joel 2, where an invading army is described as a horde of locusts with the teeth of lions and the sound of chariots. This perfectly describes the internal reign of terror by the Zealot factions inside Jerusalem. They struck like scorpions in the dark, assassinating anyone who whispered of surrender to Rome. The citizens longed for death (v. 6) to escape the daily torture, starvation, and paranoia of the siege, but could not escape the locked city.
3) The Sixth Trumpet: The Euphrates Army (vv. 13–19)
The "four angels bound at the Euphrates" represent the external Roman invasion force. In the Old Testament, the Euphrates River was the traditional boundary line from which Israel's greatest enemies (Assyria and Babylon) launched their invasions.
In AD 66-70, the Roman legions marched down from the north (Syria/Euphrates region) to crush the Jewish rebellion. Rome heavily utilized cavalry auxiliaries from the East. The "fire, smoke, and sulfur" proceeding from the horses' mouths represents the scorched-earth warfare of the Roman army, which systematically burned cities, forests, and fortresses to the ground as they advanced toward Jerusalem. The number "myriads of myriads" (200 million) is an apocalyptic idiom for an overwhelmingly massive, unstoppable war machine.
4) The Refusal to Repent (vv. 20–21)
The most tragic part of the chapter is the conclusion. Despite the overwhelming demonic torment inside the city and the unstoppable Roman army outside the city, the apostate leaders refused to repent.
They continued to "worship demons" (following false, violent messiahs), commit murders (slaughtering their own citizens), and engage in thefts (looting the houses of the dead during the famine). They were entirely hardened, proving that the covenantal divorce and the destruction of the Temple were absolutely necessary and completely just.
6. Prophecy Hub Links
This is apocalyptic covenant-judgment imagery anchored in the first-century transition (AD 30–70). See Revelation Appendix: Apocalyptic language 101.
- Satan — Adversary Language — Understanding the unleashing of the Destroyer (Apollyon).
- Day of Yahweh — Historical judgment via foreign armies.
7. Cross-References
- Joel 2:4-5 — The exact prophetic precedent: an invading army described as locusts with the appearance of horses and the sound of chariots.
- Matthew 12:43-45 — Jesus predicts that "this wicked generation" will become possessed by a magnitude of unclean spirits, worse than before.
- Luke 19:41-44 — Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, prophesying that their enemies will hem them in on every side because they did not recognize the time of their visitation.
8. New Creation Reality
The horrors described in Revelation 9 are not future events waiting to be unleashed upon the modern world. They are the historical record of the tragic end of the Old Covenant system. Apostate Israel was handed over to the "Destroyer," but the church was sealed and protected. You are reading covenant history for assurance, not headlines for doom. Because the old system was judged and removed, you now live safely in the New Creation, where the Spirit of Truth dwells in you, and the "gates of Hades" have been permanently broken by the King of Kings.
9. Reflection
Question: How does understanding that the "locusts" and the "Euphrates army" are ancient prophetic idioms for war and spiritual madness free you from the anxiety of trying to map the Book of Revelation onto modern military conflicts?
