9:1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. 9:2 He opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace. The sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft. 9:3 Then out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. 9:4 They were told not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead. 9:5 The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. 9:6 In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.
I saw a star that had fallen – Note the tense (‘had fallen’), and the identification as some kind of personal being (‘He was given…’).
It is possible that this refers to the fall of Satan (Isa 14:12-17; Lk 10:18; Rev 12:9). But Ian Paul thinks that this is probably a neutral, rather than a malevolent, character.
Beasley-Murray suggests that if this is a fallen angel, he ‘yet remains an instrument for doing God’s will.’
He was given the key to the shaft of the abyss – Whether malevolent or not, the key thing is that this is done with divine permission:
Although God is not the origin of evil, as elsewhere John uses the ‘divine passive’ (he was given) to communicate in a circumspect way the sovereignty of God. Evil is real, but it is neither autonomous nor unbounded.’ (Ian Paul)
‘The abyss’ is mentioned 7 times in Revelation. The key to the Abyss is mentioned in Rev 20:1. Ian Paul comments that the ‘abyss’ is to be distinguished from other places associated with the underworld in Revelation:
- The domain ‘under the earth’ (Rev 5:3, 13) appears to be home to natural creatures, and its inhabitants acknowledge and worship God.
- ‘Hades’ (Rev 1:18; 6:8; 20:13–14) is thought of as the realm of the dead in Greco-Roman mythology and appears to correspond to the Old Testament realm of Sheol. Revelation does not describe it in the same terms, but it is viewed as a temporary abode of the dead until the final judgment.
- The ‘lake of fire’ (Rev 20:14–15) is the place of final judgment and destruction, and corresponds in this regard to the realm of ‘Gehenna’ in the Gospels (e.g. Matt. 10:28; Mark 9:43; the only reference elsewhere is in Jas 3:6).
- In the Old Testament, the ‘abyss’ (Hebrew tĕhôm; Greek abyssos, meaning ‘bottomless’) refers to the chaotic primeval waters from which God formed the seas (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 77:16) and so signifies the threat of chaos that threatens to overwhelm people as well as the source of rebellion against God. In Revelation, the abyss is the source of evil.
Smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace – Although smoke can sometimes symbolise prayer (Rev 8:4), here it is suggestive of divine judgment (cf. Gen 19:28).
Five months – A normal locust swarm would move on after a few days. Nevertheless, it is a limited time.
The locusts – ‘The original readers could hardly have mistaken what was in view – the barbarian hourdes at the outer edges of the Roman Empire’ (Fee & Stuart).
Others, such as Beasly-Murray, interpret the locusts as demons.
9:7 Now the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, and their faces looked like men’s faces. 9:8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9:9 They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 9:10 They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails. 9:11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
This description of the locusts echoes Joel 1:6; 2:1-10.
W. Boyd Carpenter comments:
‘They are locusts, but they have the malice of a scorpion. They advance like horse-soldiers to battle; they wear crowns; they bear a resemblance to men. There is something womanlike also in their appearance, and in their voracity they are as lions. The exigencies of the symbolism are quite beyond the features of the ordinary locust. The sacred writer shows us a plague in which devastation, malice, king-like authority, intelligence, seductiveness, fierceness, strength, meet together under one directing spirit, to torment men.’ (Commentary on the Whole Bible)
9:12 The first woe has passed, but two woes are still coming after these things!
9:13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God, 9:14 saying to the sixth angel, the one holding the trumpet, “Set free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” 9:15 Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year were set free to kill a third of humanity. 9:16 The number of soldiers on horseback was two hundred million; I heard their number. 9:17 Now this is what the horses and their riders looked like in my vision: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and sulfurous yellow in color. The heads of the horses looked like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths. 9:18 A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues, that is, by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths. 9:19 For the power of the horses resides in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries. 9:20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. 9:21 Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.
Abaddon…Apollyon – ‘Hebrew Abaddon and Greek Apollyon both mean “destroyer.” There may be an ironic allusion to Nero or Domitian, both of whom saw themselves as similar to the Greek god Apollo.’ (New Geneva)
Sam Storms quotes George Caird:
‘Modern readers are apt to be shocked at the idea that God should be prepared to kill off large numbers of men in order to provide an object lesson for those who survive. John is more realistic about the fact of death. All men must die, and the question mark which death sets over their existence is just as great whether they die late or soon, alone or in company, violently or in their beds. Their ultimate destiny is not determined either by the moment or by the manner of their death, as the untimely death of the martyrs should prove, but by the opening of the heavenly books and by the true and just judgments which proceed from the great white throne (xx. 11-15). The idea that life on earth is so infinitely precious that the death which robs us of it must be the ultimate tragedy is precisely the idolatry that John is trying here to combat. We have already seen . . . that John calls the enemies of the church ‘the inhabitants of earth’ [or ‘earth-dwellers’], because they have made themselves utterly at home in this transient world order. If all men must die, and if at the end heaven and earth must vanish, along with those whose life is irremediably bounded by worldly horizons, then it is surely in accord with the mercy of God that he should send men from time to time forceful reminders of the insecurity of their tenure.’ (I have retained Storms’ emphasis)