The big picture
The fifth and sixth trumpets intensify the woes, but the Book of Revelation keeps placing limits beside the terror. A star receives a key to the bottomless pit and releases locustlike creatures whose targets, duration, and power are restricted. They cannot harm vegetation, cannot touch those with God's seal, and cannot kill, though their five months of torment are dreadful. Their composite bodies borrow the language of locusts, scorpions, lions, armored cavalry, and rushing chariots. The sixth trumpet releases four bound angels at an appointed time and an immense mounted force that kills a third of humanity. Yet the chapter does not end by staring at the army. Its closing diagnosis concerns the survivors, who continue worshiping lifeless idols and refuse to repent of murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft. The final emphasis falls on persistent allegiance rather than spectacular destruction.
In this chapter
- The Pit Opens, but Its Creatures Receive Restrictions Revelation 9:1-6
The fallen star of the fifth trumpet is treated as a personal agent because a key is given to him and he opens the bottomless pit.
- A Swarm Assembled from the Language of War Revelation 9:7-12
John describes the locusts by piling comparison upon comparison: like horses prepared for battle, apparent crowns like gold, humanlike faces, hair like women's hair, lions' teeth, ironlike breastplates, and wings sounding like chariots rushing into war.
- A Vast Army Arrives at an Appointed Time Revelation 9:13-19
A voice from the four horns of the golden altar commands the release of four angels bound at the Euphrates.
- Survival Does Not Become Repentance Revelation 9:20-21
After the smoke, fire, brimstone, and vast cavalry, the chapter suddenly returns to handmade materials: gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood.
Scripture beside the summary
Revelation · King James Version · 21Revelation 9:1-6
The Pit Opens, but Its Creatures Receive Restrictions
The fallen star of the fifth trumpet is treated as a personal agent because a key is given to him and he opens the bottomless pit. Revelation does not name him here, and interpretations range from a fallen angel to an authorized heavenly agent. The clearer fact is that access is given. Smoke darkens the sun and air, and locusts emerge with scorpionlike power. Then the restrictions begin. They are forbidden to harm grass, green growth, or trees, which ordinary locusts would attack. Their targets are people without the seal of God. Even then, killing is forbidden. Their permitted work is torment for five months. The pain is described as severe enough that people seek death and cannot find it. None of those boundaries makes the suffering gentle. They make the power defined. The Book of Revelation presents a horrifying force that cannot choose its targets, set its duration, or expand its authority at will. Terror exists inside a field it did not create.
Deep dive
The star is treated as a personal agent: a key is given to him, and he opens the pit. Revelation does not identify him by name here. Suggestions include a fallen angel or an angel executing a permitted task, but the gift of the key is clearer than the agent's identity. Access to the pit is authorized rather than seized independently.
The locusts are immediately unlike ordinary locusts. Grass, green growth, and trees are specifically protected from them. People without God's forehead seal become their targets instead. This restriction links the vision with chapter 7 and prevents the creatures' terrifying appearance from being mistaken for unlimited power.
Their duration is five months, and killing lies outside their permission. The result is not mild suffering: the text describes a torment so severe that death is desired but unavailable. Revelation states that anguish without inviting speculation about the victims' private histories. The repeated restrictions do not soften the scene. They show that even this dreadful power has a defined field of action, a measured duration, and boundaries it cannot set for itself.
Words to trace: earth, smoke, bottomless, death, power, torment
Verse-by-verse path
- Revelation 9:1
“Fall” is a perfect participle: John sees a star already fallen, not falling. “The bottomless pit” is literally “the shaft of the abyss”, a well-shaft leading down to the deep, with a mouth that can be locked. Jesus said he beheld Satan “as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
- Revelation 9:2
“As the smoke of a great furnace” is what Abraham saw rising from Sodom (Genesis 19:28) and what rose from Sinai when the LORD descended in fire (Exodus 19:18). Joel 2:10 says that before the locust army “the sun and the moon shall be dark”.
- Revelation 9:3
Locusts were the eighth plague of Egypt, and they too darkened the land (Exodus 10:12–15). The scorpions of the region give a sting that is agonising but seldom kills an adult, which fits the limit set in verse 5. Deuteronomy 8:15 remembers the wilderness as a place “of fiery serpents, and scorpions”.
- Revelation 9:4
The command reverses the Exodus plague exactly: there the locusts “did eat every herb of the land … and there remained not any green thing” (Exodus 10:15). Here the green things are the one target forbidden. In Egypt, too, some plagues fell on the Egyptians while Israel in Goshen was spared (Exodus 8:22).
- Revelation 9:5
Five months is roughly the life of a locust from spring hatching to late summer, the season in which a swarm does its damage, and many have read the number that way. It is also the length of time the flood waters prevailed on the earth, a hundred and fifty days (Genesis 7:24).
- Revelation 9:6
The tense switches from past to future, “shall men seek”, as though John steps out of the vision to prophesy. Job 3:21 speaks of those “which long for death, but it cometh not”. In 6:8 Death rode out after its victims; here death runs away from the people who want it.
Revelation 9:1-6
King James Version1And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
Revelation 9:7-12
A Swarm Assembled from the Language of War
John describes the locusts by piling comparison upon comparison: like horses prepared for battle, apparent crowns like gold, humanlike faces, hair like women's hair, lions' teeth, ironlike breastplates, and wings sounding like chariots rushing into war. The repeated "like" language matters. Revelation is assembling an unfamiliar creature out of recognizable images, not handing readers an engineering diagram of future machinery. Joel's prophetic locust army provides an important background for the fusion of swarm, horses, chariots, and battle noise. Their tails return to the scorpion image and repeat the five-month limit. They also have a king, the angel of the bottomless pit, named Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek, names associated with destruction and destroyer. The text does not require that this king be collapsed into every other hostile figure in the book. Its closing sentence is almost curt: one woe is past, and two remain. Even this nightmare is not Revelation's final center.
Deep dive
John's repeated comparisons matter: shapes like battle horses, apparent golden crowns, humanlike faces, hair like women's hair, teeth like lions' teeth, and armor like iron. The description accumulates recognizable features into an unfamiliar whole. Treating it as an exact engineering drawing of later machinery discards the comparisons by which John actually presents the vision.
The sound of wings resembles chariots and many horses rushing into battle. Joel 2:4-5 likewise connects a locust host with horses, chariots, and an advancing army. That prophetic vocabulary gives Revelation's image an existing scriptural setting. The terror lies partly in the fusion of swarm and military force: numbers, noise, armor, and directed attack converge.
Their king is the angel of the pit, named in Hebrew as Abaddon and in Greek as Apollyon. The names carry the sense of destruction and destroyer. The text does not require that the king be identified with every other hostile figure in Revelation. Its final notice is structural and ominous: one woe has passed, but two remain. Even a vision this elaborate is not allowed to become the book's stopping point.
Words to trace: battle, breastplates, faces, hair, horses, name
Verse-by-verse path
- Revelation 9:7
Joel 2:4 says of the locust army, “the appearance of them is as the appearance of horses”. The resemblance was noticed well beyond Israel: the German Heupferd, “hay horse”, and the Italian cavalletta, “little mare”, both name the grasshopper after the horse’s head.
- Revelation 9:8
“Teeth as the teeth of lions” comes from Joel 1:6, where the invading swarm is a nation “whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion”. Long hair was a feature Roman writers noted in the Parthian horsemen, and some read the detail that way.
- Revelation 9:9
“Breastplates” is thorax, the Greek word for a soldier’s cuirass, and the English name for an insect’s armoured middle section comes from exactly this word. The noise of chariots is the noise Joel heard: “like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap” (Joel 2:5).
- Revelation 9:10
“Stings” is kentra, the word for a goad, used in Acts 26:14, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks”, and in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting?”. The five months are stated a second time, as though the limit needs repeating.
- Revelation 9:11
Abaddon is the Hebrew for “destruction”, paired with Sheol in Job 26:6 and Proverbs 15:11 (“hell and destruction”). Apollyon means “Destroyer”, and some suspect a pun on Apollo, whose emblems included the locust and with whom Domitian liked to be associated. Proverbs 30:27 had noted that locusts “have no king”; these do.
- Revelation 9:12
“Woe” is treated as a noun in the feminine: “the one woe is past”. The second woe will be declared past at 11:14. The third is announced as coming quickly there, and the book never marks its ending in the same way.
Revelation 9:7-12
King James Version7And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
Revelation 9:13-19
A Vast Army Arrives at an Appointed Time
A voice from the four horns of the golden altar commands the release of four angels bound at the Euphrates. The location and altar link the sixth trumpet to the heavenly scenes of prayer and judgment, but these are not simply the four wind-holding angels from chapter 7 under another name. Revelation gives them different locations and functions. Their timing is exact in a different sense: they have been prepared for an hour, day, month, and year. The point is appointment rather than chance. Their permitted task is to kill a third of humanity, an escalation from the nonlethal torment of the fifth trumpet. John hears an army numbered at two hundred million and sees horses with lionlike heads and serpentlike tails, killing through fire, smoke, and brimstone. The enormous number does not identify a modern nationality, and the composite anatomy does not identify a weapons platform. The Book of Revelation states magnitude and destructive means without supplying a contemporary roster.
Deep dive
The command comes from the golden altar before God, the location associated with prayer in chapter 8. Four angels are released from binding at the Euphrates. The chapter does not identify them with the four wind-holding angels of chapter 7, whose location and activity differ. Similar numbers are not sufficient reason to merge separate figures.
The hour, day, month, and year emphasize an appointed moment. The agents have been prepared for a task, and their action kills a third of humanity. Unlike the locusts, they are permitted to kill. The sequence therefore intensifies both the scope and the kind of suffering while retaining a stated limit.
John hears the army's number: two hundred million. He then describes what he sees, horses with lionlike heads and serpentlike tails, killing through fire, smoke, and brimstone. The number's enormous scale does not establish a modern nationality, and the creatures' composite bodies do not identify a particular weapons system. The vision's own explanation locates their power in mouths and tails. Revelation insists on the magnitude of the force without supplying a contemporary military roster.
Words to trace: brimstone, fire, heads, angel, angels, horses
Verse-by-verse path
- Revelation 9:13
“A voice” is literally “one voice”. The horns are the four corner projections of the incense altar (Exodus 30:2), smeared with blood once a year on the Day of Atonement (Exodus 30:10), and fugitives clung to an altar’s horns for sanctuary (1 Kings 1:50). “Four” is missing from some of the oldest manuscripts.
- Revelation 9:14
The Euphrates was the eastern limit of the land promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:18) and the frontier of the Roman Empire, with the Parthians beyond. Isaiah 8:7 pictures the invading king of Assyria as “the waters of the river, strong and many”, the great river overflowing its banks.
- Revelation 9:15
In Greek a single article governs all four terms: “prepared for the hour and day and month and year”. It names one appointed moment, not a span of thirteen months added together. The killing is now permitted, where the locusts of verse 5 were forbidden it.
- Revelation 9:16
“Two hundred thousand thousand” is “twice ten thousand times ten thousand”, a number far beyond any army the ancient world had fielded. The phrase “I heard the number of them” is the same as for the sealed in 7:4: in both cases the count reaches John by ear.
- Revelation 9:17
Only here does John say “in the vision”. Jacinth is hyacinth, a smoky dark blue, and brimstone is sulphur yellow. The three colours of the breastplates, fiery red, smoky blue and sulphur yellow, match exactly the fire, smoke and brimstone that come out of the horses’ mouths.
- Revelation 9:18
“By these three” is “by these three plagues” in the ancient copies. Fire and brimstone together are the rain that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24), and this is the first time in the book that they appear. The fraction of verse 15, a third of mankind, is now carried out.
- Revelation 9:19
The Parthian cavalry were famous for turning in the saddle to shoot while riding away, the “Parthian shot”, and some see that behind power that lies in the tails. The tails having heads makes each horse dangerous at both ends. “Do hurt” is adikousin, the verb of 7:2–3.
Revelation 9:13-19
King James Version13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
Revelation 9:20-21
Survival Does Not Become Repentance
After the smoke, fire, brimstone, and vast cavalry, the chapter suddenly returns to handmade materials: gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. The survivors still worship idols that cannot see, hear, or walk. The contrast is sharp. Revelation has just shown terrifyingly active creatures, then ends with human allegiance directed toward objects unable to perform the most basic actions. Twice the text says they "repented not." Survival has not produced moral clarity by itself. Murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft remain alongside idolatry as named practices rather than disappearing under a vague category of wrongdoing. The KJV's "sorceries" translates language connected with magical practice; the word's historical relation to terms for drugs does not make this a condemnation of ordinary medicine. The Book of Revelation closes the trumpet scene by focusing on worship and conduct. The army's scale is not the final shock. The more stubborn fact is that people can pass through catastrophe and continue giving themselves to the same loyalties and deeds.
Deep dive
The chapter turns from extraordinary creatures to ordinary objects: gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. These materials have become idols that cannot see, hear, or walk. After an army of terrifyingly active figures, the stillness of the worshiped objects is a pointed contrast. The survivors continue to give allegiance to what cannot respond.
The repeated "repented not" provides the chapter's closing diagnosis. Revelation does not claim that every calamity automatically produces moral clarity or changed conduct. Here survival leaves the old practices intact. Murders, sorceries, sexual wrongdoing, and theft remain named alongside idolatry rather than being hidden behind a general phrase about human failure.
The Greek pharmakeia, rendered "sorceries" in the KJV, concerns magical practice here. Its relation to words for drugs or potions does not turn this verse into a condemnation of ordinary medicine. The closing verses identify worship and conduct, not a scientific profession. Their weight lies in the refusal to change after the judgments, making human persistence, rather than the army's size, the chapter's final subject.
Words to trace: repented, brass, devils, fornication, gold, hands
Verse-by-verse path
- Revelation 9:20
The list of materials echoes Daniel 5:23, where Belshazzar praised gods “of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know”, and Psalm 115:4–7. “Devils” is daimonia; Paul says what pagans sacrifice “they sacrifice to devils” (1 Corinthians 10:20), following Deuteronomy 32:17.
- Revelation 9:21
Murder, fornication and theft follow the order of the sixth, seventh and eighth commandments, with sorcery set among them. Sorcery comes back in 18:23 as the means by which Babylon deceived all nations, so the charge here looks ahead to the city that will fall.
Revelation 9:20-21
King James Version20And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Follow the visions in the order the book presents them.
- Notice worship, witness, endurance, judgment, and hope.
- Distinguish what the text explicitly identifies from debated symbols and speculative timelines.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Revelation 9?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Revelation 9 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: The fifth and sixth trumpets with abyss, locust-like powers, released forces, and humanity still refusing repentance?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
