Revelation 9:1–11

At the sound of the fifth trumpet a star appears — not falling, as the older common translation puts it, but already fallen from heaven to earth. This seems to connect him with the apostasy under the third trumpet. And no one else's apostasy is likely to be as notable as the apostasy of the man whose course is recorded here. In any case, it is certainly an apostate who stands before us, and to him is given "the key of the abyss."

The star fallen from heaven to earth is a dignitary in an apostate state. This points to a real person, as the next words show — "to him was given the key of the pit of the abyss." The allusion to Isaiah 14:12 seems clear. There the king of Babylon is taunted: "How you are fallen, O Lucifer [that is, day-star], son of the morning… Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." What is in view here is not his doom, but the authority he was permitted to exercise over the abyss. The abyss is the expression of the source of satanic evil and misery.

The star fallen from heaven with the key of the pit of the abyss is Satan himself, cast out of heaven. The details of this event we learn in the twelfth chapter.

In the Old Testament a "pit" is often another word for a dungeon, and everything points to that meaning here. The "abyss" is not something other than the pit itself. It only defines it further — the dungeon which is the abyss. So the demons beg not to be sent into the deep, or "abyss" (Luke 8:31), and in the twentieth chapter Satan is shut up there… The abyss is not "hell," the "lake of fire." We can see this from one passage (Romans 10:7), which uses the word in connection with the Lord: "Who will descend into the abyss?" — that is, to bring Christ up from the dead… The literal meaning ("bottomless") must not be pressed, as our own use of the word shows.

Revelation 9:1 makes it clear that Satan does not have absolute control to do as he pleases, for the key of the bottomless pit is not in his hand. The star that fell from heaven was given the key for the time being, but the key did not belong to him. For a limited time this star — some great intellectual or spiritual leader — was allowed to bring up influences from the regions below. Those influences would bring delusion and trouble on all who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

The key of the bottomless pit was given to him. God permits Satan to act. Sometimes this is for the good of His children. Sometimes it is to let His judgments fall on His enemies. Satan and his angels are glad to seize an opportunity to do evil. God is coming here to chastise the wickedness of men.

Under the fifth trumpet this fallen ruler is about to let loose the malignant and darkening power of Satan on the apostate part of Judah. Apostate Gentiles are the ones judged under the third trumpet; apostate Jews are the sufferers under the fifth. The state of things under this first woe goes beyond anything we have seen so far. Direct satanic influence and power drive the agents and instruments of evil.

In the Old Testament a "pit" is often a word for a dungeon, and everything here points to that meaning. The "abyss" is not something other than the pit itself. It is only a further definition of it — the dungeon which is the abyss. So the demons pray that they may not be sent into the deep, or "abyss" (Luke 8:31). In the twentieth chapter Satan is shut up there... The abyss is not, however, "hell" — the "lake of fire." ... The literal meaning, "bottomless," must not be pressed. We use the word loosely ourselves, and the Greek word was used in the same way. The Greek Old Testament uses it for the "deep" over which darkness lay on the first day.

He has "the key of the pit of the abyss." This is the unfathomable or bottomless pit, where evil is held back until it receives its final doom. Here "the spirits in prison" are kept (1 Peter 3:19). Here Satan will be shut up for a thousand years, before his last rebellion and everlasting punishment. Here too the angels who sinned are "committed to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment." (2 Peter 2:4.)

If the four earlier judgments were providential, though God inflicted them as acts of judgment, this one is different. It is still under God's control, but its origin and its nature are satanic.

God permits Satan to act sometimes for the good of His children, sometimes to let His judgments fall on His enemies. Satan and his angels are glad to seize an opportunity to do evil. God is coming here to chastise the wickedness of men.

The smoke rising like the smoke of a great furnace is the symbol of a delusion which darkens the mind of man.

Here, in Revelation 9, I take the smoke to express two things. First, that the place it comes from is under judgment. Second, the darkening tendency of what will proceed from there, as the parent or nurse of the locusts issuing from it. The smoke is "like the smoke of a great furnace," which I take to express the fullness of its volume. The result was that the sun and the air were darkened by it.

This means a satanic delusion bred in the abyss, marked by the way it blinds and withers people morally. It is probably the same delusion to which Christendom will be given over, which Paul speaks of (2 Thess. 2:11-12). The smoke is the darkening influence and power of Satan. Its effect will be to blight the supreme government (the sun). It will also darken and corrupt the whole social life and principles of men (the air).

What the smoke exactly represents may be hard to say, but its source and effect are clear. It shuts man off from all that he needs for his moral and spiritual welfare. It is Satan's smoke today that hides the word of God from the souls of men. They breathe it instead of the pure influences of the Scriptures, and so become morally poisoned and tormented.

Christ has "the keys of Death and Hades" (Revelation 1:18). We cannot imagine that He would hand over any part of His own authority to an apostate, whether man or spirit… In fact, the text does not even say that the locusts come out of the pit. Nothing comes out of it but the smoke that darkens the sun and the air. The locusts come out of the smoke… The smoke here is not the smoke of torment, as it is elsewhere. It is the fumes of harmful spiritual influences that darken the air and the supreme source of light itself. We can easily understand that the locusts are bred out of that darkness.

The locusts that come out of the smoke are a picture of aggressive robbers, and they are clothed with a remarkable power of torment, like the scorpions of the earth. The command given shows very plainly, I think, the error of those who take the locusts literally. They were not to hurt the grass of the earth, and so on — that is, their natural food, if real locusts were meant.

The intense anguish caused by these hordes of satanic instruments and agents is like the torment of a scorpion's poisonous sting. The scorpion shuns the light, and the native peoples of Africa and the Arab tribes of Asia rightly dread it. The sting is not often fatal, but the suffering is dreadful… In Luke 10:19 the Lord connects serpents, scorpions, and the power of the enemy with the fall of Satan. Here, in the same way, scorpions are linked with the fallen star.

If the four earlier judgments were providential, though inflicted judicially by God, this one, while still under God's control, is diabolical in its origin and nature.

Their power fits their origin: it is pictured as the power of the scorpions of the earth — that is, their poisonous sting. Their difference from natural locusts shows here. They do not touch the locusts' food. They are a plague only on men, and only on the unsealed among them. Since it is in Israel that the sealing is found, the fair inference is that these unsealed ones are Israelites, and the place of this plague is in the east.

This evil teaching is pictured as a swarm of locusts that sweeps everything before it with irresistible power, leaving misery in its trail. Natural locusts would destroy the grass and every green thing, and strip the trees. But the evil influence set out by these symbolic locusts will not touch people's circumstances in life, or even their bodies. It poisons their minds, just as a scorpion poisons the body.

The command given shows, I think very plainly, the error of those who take the locusts in a literal way. They were not to hurt the grass of the earth, and so on — that is, their natural food, if real locusts were meant. Men were to be the objects of these symbolic raiders — men, except God's sealed ones.

The whole description shows that the locust army is a symbolic picture of judgment of a superhuman kind. So does the ban on injuring the grass and trees, their natural food. There is a further reason why the plant world was to be spared. The grass, "any green plant," and trees point to a general state of prosperity in men's circumstances and position.

Their power is limited. This command settles two things. First, as already said, these are moral, not real, locusts. Natural locusts ravage exactly the plants and trees of the earth. Second, the target of this dreadful visitation is apostate Jews. Revelation 7 tells us that the servants of God, sealed on their foreheads, are the elect of the twelve tribes. So those not sealed would be Jews outside that elect number. Later parts of this book make it clear that these unsealed Jews will be, mostly if not entirely, in Jerusalem and Palestine. That fixes both the sphere and the character of the judgment.

Perhaps the double name in Hebrew and Greek shows that their power will be over Jews and Gentiles.

With the seal we have the idea of God's property, His ownership, and it also carries the meaning of security. If God has put His seal on a man, everyone can see it, because it is on the forehead. Then even these evil powers will not touch him. This mark is the exact opposite of the mark of the beast. People will accept the mark of the beast in order to survive, and that is the opposite of faith.

"The seal of the living God" implies safety from death. The seal on the forehead is a public, open acknowledgment that those sealed belong to God. What the seal is, we are not told.

We learn, second, that God governs the world with His people in view. The angel coming up from the east told the four angels not to hurt the earth, the sea, or the trees, "until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." It was the same when judgment was about to fall on Jerusalem. The Lord had a mark set on the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried over all the detestable things done in it. He kept this faithful remnant safe while the punishment swept through.

These locusts have the poison of scorpions. The natural locust feeds on every green thing, but these were only to afflict the unsealed among men. Their torment is like the sting of a scorpion, which is very sharp but does not usually kill. There is a limit to the length of this affliction — five months.

Second, we have the extent to which the judgment can go. Satan was allowed to persecute Job, but not to take his life. In the same way these symbolic locusts, these agents from the bottomless pit, are not allowed to take the lives of their victims. They may only put them through such extreme torture for a limited period (five months) that their victims will long for death and not get it.

In Luke 10:19 the Lord connects serpents, scorpions, and the power of the enemy with the fall of Satan. But these hellish instruments of vengeance, let loose on guilty Israel, have no power unless they are given authority to act.

They do not kill, just as the scorpion in general does not. They inflict torment so bad that death would be better. Their power lasts five months.

The whole description shows that this locust army is a symbol of judgment of a superhuman kind. So does the ban on injuring the grass and trees (v. 4), their natural food.

These had the poison of scorpions. The natural locust preys on every green thing, but these were only to afflict people who had no seal. This points us back to the opening verses of Revelation 7. There we find that those who were sealed were the servants of God out of the tribes of Israel.

The next two verses (vv. 5, 6) give the nature, duration, and effect of this judgment. The "locusts" were not permitted to kill, only to torment... We are not told what kind of torment this is, whether mental or otherwise. But if, as we conclude, these "locusts" are demonic agents, the seat of the torment would be the soul rather than the body.

The evil influence pictured by these symbolic locusts will not affect the circumstances of life, or even the bodies of men. It poisons the minds of men just as a scorpion poisons the body. Men will fall into such mental misery that they will seek death and not find it.

We believe that the "five months" of torment points back to the ravages of the natural locust, which usually last five months. A limited and brief period is meant, one that may not go beyond five months.

Those who apply this prophecy to the Saracens have to adopt the "year-day" theory to explain the five months. Take a day to stand for a year, and the five months stretch out to one hundred and fifty years. That, they claim, matches the length of Saracen rule. Unfortunately for those who hold this view, the year-day theory finds no support whatever in this book.

The "locusts" were not permitted to kill, only to torment, and this for the space of five months. The torment makes those who suffer it weary of their lives. They want to die, but death flees from them. Death would be a relief from their agony. But they suffer by God's appointment, and however much they long for death, they are not permitted to find it.

Death would be a welcome release from the torment — the anguish of soul these servants of Satan inflict. But that last refuge of despair is denied them: "death will flee from them." The gnawing anguish and horrible torment of a guilty and sin-defiled conscience is beyond all telling. Only those enduring it can weigh and measure it.

Isaiah 9:15 throws light, we believe, on this statement: "the prophet who teaches lies is the tail." So the sting in the tail, we believe, is the twisting of truth by these demonic agents. It produces such anguish of spirit in those affected that life becomes unbearable.

They resemble locusts in their overwhelming numbers and power, but they have stings like scorpions. Their torment is so dreadful that men desire death. Death, however, "will flee from them," for this is not a plague of slaughter and destruction, but only of intense suffering. The people harmed are "only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads." Since the sealing was not for people outside Israel, but only for a select number from the twelve tribes, we may infer that it is only the unbelieving part of Israel who suffer the dreadful, though not fatal, anguish inflicted by this army of tormentors from the bottomless pit.

You know how people fear death now, if they are not saved. They would run away from it if they could. But a dreadful time is coming, when the Lord comes to punish people who would not obey the gospel. Then men will be so tormented that they will beg for death. But they shall not die; death will depart from them.

What a solemn picture of how hardened man's heart can become against God! Even this dreadful visitation produces no good effect. They are given up to "a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false." Those who once despised God in His grace will at last despise Him in His government. Each new stroke of His judgment will only make them more callous and defiant, until at last, like Pharaoh, they walk blindfolded into the very flood that swallows them up. Such is man. How marvellous the grace that could stoop to the fallen state of creatures so degraded and ruined, and buy them for glory at so priceless a cost!

The New Testament speaks of long hair as the natural covering of a woman. It owns her subjection to the man, and it is a glory to her. But nature teaches that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him. He must not cover his head in that way, for "he is the image and glory of God." 1 Corinthians 11:6-15. "Hair as the hair of women" is a symbol of subjection to a head, and of effeminacy. Revelation 9:8.

"They had hair like the hair of women" (length of hair) — perhaps the badge of luxury, or of beauty (2 Samuel 14:26; Isaiah 3:24). The mention of women may assert the appearance of weakness (Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 19:16). Or, taking 1 Corinthians 11 where the hair serves as a veil, it may assert apparent subjection.

Their effeminacy and subjection come next. They are subject not to God, but to Satan their leader: "They had hair as women's hair."

Their faces are as of men, but with the hair of women. This may show that, for all their claim to act with authority in the name of God, they were subject to the lowest human authority after all, and not to God.

"Their faces were as faces of men" also — they had the dignity and apparent independence of men. And yet "they had hair as the hair of women." They were in the fullest subjection to the dark and dreadful power that ruled over them.

Teeth as those of lions exposes their actual character of greed and tenacity: they catch a person and do not let go.

"Their teeth were as the teeth of lions." This shows their readiness for consuming. The lion stands for courage and power, whether the word is applied to Judah, to Messiah, to Satan, or to the animal in nature. (Proverbs 28:1; Proverbs 30:14, 30; Daniel 7:7, 19; Joel 1:6.)

To my mind the intention is moral, not geographical... Does it not seem almost trifling to take the faces of men, the hair of women, and crowns like gold as a hint at beard or moustache, with literal flowing hair under a turban? Taken as emblems of character, the dignity of the divine word is vindicated and felt. The locusts naturally point to countless swarms, devouring within set limits, but they are marked out more by the tormenting sting of false doctrine.

That a woman shaving her head may signify grief, I understand — it is a shame, and her ornament is gone. But why a man putting on woman's hair should be joy is, I confess, beyond me. I am not prepared to argue against it, because I am not clear about the point myself.

They know no pity. Neither force nor entreaty has any effect in turning them from their purpose. Their hearts are hard, their consciences like steel — "they had breastplates like breastplates of iron."

Breastplates of iron symbolise that they could not be wounded when attacked. We also see that they had tails like scorpions, with stings in their tails. That shows what harm they could inflict — even the instilling of untruth, which would produce sharp anguish of spirit and make life unbearable.

They have breastplates imitating iron (v. 9). The believer wears the "breastplate of righteousness" (Ephesians 6:14). This is the opposite: a hardened conscience, with no proper feeling left. The sound of their wings inspired terror, like an army of war-horses on the run. When people have rejected God outright, this leaves room for a great and awesome infestation of demons. They will make their power felt.

The satanic host swept on with unstoppable energy, striking fear and terror into their victims. This sound announces their approach: "The noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle" (compare Joel 2:5).

Whatever its outward attraction to the minds of men, "the teeth of lions" would imply that it will lay hold of men with fanatical ferocity. "The breastplates of iron" may show that it will harden the affections and seize the minds of men with incredible swiftness. "The noise of their wings," likened to "the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle," pictures that speed.

To my mind the intention is moral, not geographical. This kind of teaching takes away from the real force of Scripture. It fills the mind with what may be partly true in a natural way, but is not, I believe, what the Holy Spirit intends. … Taken as emblems of character, these figures uphold the dignity of God's word and make it felt. … I take the iron breastplates, the lion-teeth and the sounding wings as a figure of unflinching fanatical courage. That is their strongest armour.

The war horses and crowns seem to point to unstoppable fury and a show of power. … The teeth of lions point to destructive violence. The breastplates of iron point to a conscience steeled against pity and remorse. Their advance causes a mighty commotion, like war-chariots hurrying to battle. … It is not a material but a moral plague that the followers of Apollyon, "the destroyer," inflict. … there is no destruction of physical life.

We may admit that in history this foreshadows the swarms who overran the East … But this is only a secondary and far from complete fulfilment of the prophecy. Those conquests shed great blood, while the text plainly says these locusts do not kill. The main application is therefore to something quite different, and still future.

They are clearly not the literal insects. One reason alone proves it: Scripture says plainly that they do not feed on the natural food of locusts. The well-known creature, with alarming qualities and powers added, becomes the sign that describes these raiders from the abyss.

They were not mere plunderers. They had warlike energy, and they claimed God's righteous approval for their headlong career, carrying His image and glory on the outside, though in truth they were completely subject to man and to Satan too. Ferocity is theirs, and hearts steeled against every feeling of pity as they rush on. But their worst power was the venom of falsehood which followed. It was the energy of false doctrine, represented by the scorpion sting in the tail. And we know from elsewhere, "the prophet who speaks lies, he is the tail."

Isaiah 9:15 throws light, we believe, on this statement: "The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail." The sting in the tail, then, we believe to be the twisting of truth by these demonic agents, producing such anguish of spirit in those affected that life becomes unbearable.

In the next part of this extraordinary description the past tense gives way to the present. Surely this is deliberate. It marks off the worst and most typical feature from what has gone before: "they have tails like scorpions, and stings." Then again, "and their power was in their tails to hurt men five months." This points back to verses three and five.

Their power matches their origin. It is the power of the scorpions of the earth, that is, a poisonous sting. They differ from natural locusts in this: they do not touch the locusts' food. They are a plague only upon men, and these men are the unsealed. Since we find the sealing in Israel, it seems fair to infer that these unsealed ones are Israelites, and that this plague falls in the east. They do not kill, as a scorpion generally does not. They inflict torment so bad that death would be better, and their power lasts five months.

God's purpose is not yet to kill men. Satan, whatever his power and his malice, can do nothing except what is in the purpose of God. It is a moral, diabolical power over men who have not the mark of God on their forehead.

The locust judgment under the sounding of the fifth angel is a terrible one. Despite Hengstenberg's claim to the contrary, we believe the "five months" of torment points to the ravages of the natural locust, which usually last five months. A limited and brief period is meant, one which may not exceed five months.

Many take the five months of torment (Rev. 9:10) to mean 150 years of unchecked conquest by the Muslim hordes, on the year-day theory.