Revelation 9 - Can We Help Us?

May 22, 2022

“Revelation 9

New King James Version

Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit

9 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the ^[^a^]bottomless pit. ²And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. ³Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵And ^[^b^]they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. ⁶In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

⁷The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. ⁸They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ⁹And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. ¹⁰They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. ¹¹And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is ^[^c^]Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name ^[^d^]Apollyon.

¹²One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates

¹³Then 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 who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. ¹⁷And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. ¹⁸By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹For ^[^e^]their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

²⁰But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. ²¹And they did not repent of their murders or their ^[^f^]sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Footnotes

Revelation 9:1 Lit. shaft of the abyss
Revelation 9:5 The locusts
Revelation 9:11 Lit. Destruction
Revelation 9:11 Lit. Destroyer
Revelation 9:19 NU, M the power of the horses
Revelation 9:21 NU, M drugs

New King James Version (NKJV)

“9:1-12.

The fifth trumpet – the first woe

1. The abyss opened. The seer sees ‘a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.’ This ‘star’ is the angel custodian of the pit of the Abyss, the prison house of the demons (Lk 8:30-31). That he cannot be Satan, or even an evil angel, is shown by the fact that he is the same angelic personage who once again opens the pit of ‘the Abyss’ to bind and imprison Satan prior to the millennium (20:1-3). He is an angel fallen from heaven, not a fallen angel, the past participle ‘fallen’ describing the swiftness of the angel’s descent and the suddenness with which this first woe bursts upon wicked earth dwellers.

2-12. The loosing of myriads of demons. The symbolism, 2-11, is descriptive of the invisible spirit world in terms visible and comprehensible to men. The locusts represent demons and the way they will possess, drive and torment men in the end time. (See note on ‘Demonism,’ Mk 5:1-20.) While multitudes of demons have been free to torment the human race during previous ages (Mk 1:23-27; 5:1-17; 1 Tim 4:1-6; 1 Jn 4:1-4), many of them are so viciously depraved and harmful that God has imprisoned them in the abyss. These are the terrible demons let loose under the first woe. The name of the king of the demons is Abaddon, meaning ‘destruction,’ 11 (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11), or in Gr. Apollyon, meaning ‘destroyer’ (cf. 2 Thess 2:7-12).’ . . .” (The New Unger’s Bible Handbook—Merrill F. Unger—Revised by Gary N. Larson—MOODY PRESS—CHICAGO)

‘. . . “5:1-20.

The Servant’s power over Satan

The Servant’s sinless humanity challenged the demons. The place where the demoniac was healed, 1, is called ‘the region of the Gadarenes’ in Matthew (8:28). Luke (8:26) mentions ‘the region of the Gerasenes,’ and ancient textual authorities vary, calling the inhabitants of the region ‘Gerasenes,’ ‘Gadarenes’ or ‘Gergesenes.’ Some locate Gergesa (present-day Kursi, a tiny place) on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee just below the Wadi es-Semak, where steep hills jut into the lake. However, Gadara (Umm Qeis), five miles SE of the southern end of the lake, may be indicated. This important town of the Decapolis may well have extended in its settlements to the lake shore in that period. See note on Decapolis in Mk 7.’ . . .” (The New Unger’s Bible Handbook—Merrill F. Unger—Revised by Gary N. Larson—MOODY PRESS—CHICAGO)

“Matthew 8:28

New King James Version

Two Demon-Possessed Men Healed

²⁸When He had come to the other side, to the country of the ^[^a^]Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.

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Footnotes