Revelation 9

The fifth trumpet

¹And the fifth angel blew his trumpet: I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him.^•²He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke went up from the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the shaft.^•

³From the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and authority was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have authority.^•⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, except the people who do not have the seal of God on the foreheads.^•⁵And it was given to them not to kill them, but that they should be tormented for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person.^•⁶In those days people will seek death and will by no means find it; and they will long to die, and death flees from them.^•

⁷The forms of the locusts were like horses prepared for war; and on their heads were something like crowns resembling gold, and their faces were like the faces of men,^•⁸and they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like those of lions,^•⁹and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running to war.^•¹⁰They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their authority to harm people for five months.^•¹¹They have over them as king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.^•

¹²The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.^•

The sixth trumpet

¹³And the sixth angel blew his trumpet: I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God,^•¹⁴saying to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet: Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.^•¹⁵Then the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, to kill a third of mankind.^•¹⁶The number of the armies of the cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.^•

¹⁷Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates the color of fire, and of jacinth, and of sulfur; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths come fire, and smoke, and sulfur.^•¹⁸By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed: by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the sulfur that came out of their mouths.^•¹⁹For the authority of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.^•

²⁰The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, even so did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship the demons and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of bronze, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk;^•²¹and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their prostitution, nor of their thefts.^•

Notes

9:1 “That had fallen”: Gr. πεπτωκότα, perfect participle. “Shaft of the abyss”: Gr. φρέαρ τῆς ἀβύσσου (cf. 11:7; 17:8; 20:1–3). ↩
9:2 “Furnace”: cf. Gen 19:28; Ex 19:18. “Were darkened”: cf. Joel 2:10. Variant: the Byzantine text reads “a burning furnace”. ↩
9:3 “Locusts”: cf. Ex 10:12–15; Joel 1:4; 2:4–10. ↩
9:4 “Green thing”: Gr. χλωρόν, lit. “green” (cf. 8:7). “Except”: Gr. εἰ μή. “The seal of God on the foreheads”: cf. 7:2–3; Ezek 9:4, 6. Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “on their foreheads”; the Textus Receptus also reads “only the people”. ↩
9:5 “Tormented”: Gr. βασανίζω (cf. 14:10; 20:10). “Five months”: cf. 9:10. “Strikes”: Gr. παίω, “to hit”. ↩
9:6 “By no means”: Gr. οὐ μή; the Textus Receptus reads “will not find”. “Flees”: present in the Greek; the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “will flee”. Cf. Job 3:21; Jer 8:3. ↩
9:7 “Forms”: Gr. ὁμοιώματα, lit. “likenesses”. “Horses prepared for war”: cf. Joel 2:4–5; Job 39:19–25. “Something like crowns”: Gr. ὡς στέφανοι. ↩
9:8 “Teeth… of lions”: cf. Joel 1:6. ↩
9:9 “Sound”: Gr. φωνή, “voice”. Cf. Joel 2:5. ↩
9:10 “Stings”: Gr. κέντρα. Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “and there were stings in their tails”; the Byzantine text, “and they have authority to harm”. ↩
9:11 “Abaddon”: Heb. אֲבַדּוֹן‎, “destruction” (cf. Job 26:6; 28:22; Ps 88:11 (Heb. 88:12); Prov 15:11). “Apollyon”: Gr. Ἀπολλύων, “destroyer”. ↩
9:12 “Woe”: Gr. οὐαί (cf. 8:13; 11:14). ↩
9:13 “A voice”: Gr. φωνὴν μίαν, lit. “a single voice”. “Horns of the golden altar”: cf. Ex 30:1–3; Rev 8:3. “Four”: Gr. τεσσάρων, following the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus; the SBLGNT follows Papyrus 47 and Codex Alexandrinus, which omit “four”. ↩
9:14 “Release”: Gr. λῦσον. “Bound”: Gr. δεδεμένους, perfect participle. “The great river Euphrates”: cf. 16:12; Gen 15:18; Isa 8:7. ↩
9:15 “For the hour, and day, and month, and year”: a single article for the four terms, which may indicate an appointed moment. Alternative reading: a period formed by adding the four terms together (cf. Num 14:34; Ezek 4:6, a day for a year). Variant: the Byzantine text reads “for the hour and for the day”. ↩
9:16 “Two hundred million”: Gr. δισμυριάδες μυριάδων, lit. “two myriads of myriads”, that is, twice ten thousand times ten thousand (cf. 5:11; Dan 7:10). Variant: the Byzantine text reads “myriads of myriads”. ↩
9:17 “The color of fire… of jacinth… of sulfur”: Gr. πυρίνους, ὑακινθίνους, θειώδεις, lit. “of fire, of jacinth, of sulfur”; jacinth is a dark-blue or purple stone. “Fire, and smoke, and sulfur”: cf. Gen 19:24, 28; Rev 14:10; 19:20; 21:8. ↩
9:18 “Plagues”: Gr. πληγαί (cf. 15:1; 16:9). Variant: the Textus Receptus omits “plagues”. ↩
9:19 Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “their authority” in place of “the authority of the horses”. ↩
9:20 “Even so did not”: Gr. οὐδέ; the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “did not”. “The rest”: Gr. λοιποί (cf. 19:21; 20:5). “So as not to worship”: Gr. ἵνα μή. “Idols… which can neither see”: cf. Deut 4:28; Ps 115:4–7; 135:15–17; Dan 5:23. ↩
9:21 “Sorceries”: Gr. φάρμακα, lit. “drugs, potions”, here in the sense of spells; the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read φαρμακειῶν, “sorceries”. “Prostitution”: Gr. πορνεία (cf. 2:21). ↩