Revelation 9:1-12 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Fifth Trumpet or the First Woe. The seer sees a star fallen on the earth. The star seems to represent a person, possibly Satan (cf. Luke 10:18). abyss: the word properly means bottomless, and is used in OT of the abode of the dead, e.g. Psalms 71:20. The abyss is approached by a shaft or well, here translated pit, which is closed and kept under lock and key.

Revelation 9:3. out of the smoke came. locusts: cf. Exodus 10:13 and Driver's quotation of the observations of a modern traveller: we observed large dark clouds resembling smoke moving to and fro. One morning these clouds came down and proved to be locusts. (CB, Joel, p. 90). power was given to them: these locusts were specially endowed with the scorpion-like power of tormenting men.

Revelation 9:4. not hurt the grass: this conflicts with Revelation 8:7, where, as the result of the first trumpet, all green grass was burnt up. seal of God: Revelation 7:3 ff *.

Revelation 9:5. five months: this is supposed to represent the ordinary duration of a plague of locusts. The object of the plague is not to kill, but to torture and torment.

Revelation 9:7. like unto horses: this description is taken from Joel 2:4. crowns. men's faces: these two features seem to be peculiar to the locusts of the abyss; there is nothing about the ordinary locust to account for this description.

Revelation 9:11. They have. as king: In Proverbs 30:27 it is stated that locusts have no king, but these locusts belong to the abyss. Abaddon: the word only occurs in what is known as the Wisdom Literature (Job 26:6; Job 28:22; Psalms 88:11; Proverbs 15:11 *, etc.), where it means ruin or destruction, either on earth or in Sheol. Here Destruction is personified. Apollyon is the Greek equivalent for Abaddon.

Related Commentaries of Revelation 9:1

Revelation 9:1-12

1 And 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.

2 And 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.

3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4 And 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.

5 And 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.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7 And 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.

8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9 And 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.

10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11 And 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.a

12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.