Revelation 9: Two Trumpets & Two Woes

• v.1-12 The Fifth Trumpet: The First Woe: evil creatures released to torture unbelievers
• v.13-21 The Sixth Trumpet: The Second Woe: death to a third of mankind

v.1-12 The Fifth Trumpet: The First Woe: evil creatures released to torture unbelievers

v.1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.

v.2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.

v.3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.

v.4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

v.5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.

v.6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

[Note: A senior demonic being is given power and he opens the underworld and locust-scorpions are released on the earth. They are allowed to attack only unbelievers and they torture them to such a degree that people will long for death.]

[Additional Note: We need to remember that prophecy frequently uses allegorical lingual to take ‘physical pictures’ to convey spiritual truths. These verses therefore might suggest a mighty demonic outpouring (not seen with physical eyes) that has both spiritual and physical manifestations.]

v.7-10 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.  They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.

v.11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

v.12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

[Note: These demonic spirits look evil and have the power to torment and Satan, the Destroyer is over them. That’s 1 of 3 sorts of woes.]

[Additional Note: However we understand this – possibly an outpouring of demonic spirits under Satan’s charge – it is a time of great pain, infection(?) or even plague (?). Whereas the judgments before had impacted the physical earth, these demonic beings are allowed to attack the bodies of people. Again it is a case of gradual increasing of the judgments to bring mankind to its senses.]

v.13-21 The Sixth Trumpet: The Second Woe: death to a third of mankind

v.13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God.

v.14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

v.15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

v.16,17 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur.

v.18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.

v.19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

v.20,21 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.  Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

[Note: A further voice comes to commence the third ‘woe’ and it commands four destroying angels be released who are to kill a third of mankind and they appear to command a terrible army. They bring plagues, and fire and a third die and appear to sting to bring death. The unbelieving survivors refuse to repent.]

[Additional Note: The fact that the four angels had been previously bound, suggests they were fallen angels, demonic authorities who are now released to extend the judgment of pain to become the judgement of death for a third of mankind. Almost unbelievably, mankind still do not repent and the list of their sins remains clear.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: