And the likenesses of the locusts [were] like to horses prepared for war; and upon their heads as crowns like gold, and their faces as faces of men;
Revelation 9:7 belongs to the fifth trumpet, where a swarm rises from the smoke of the pit to torment people, not to strip the fields. The verse pictures that swarm — war horses, gold-like crowns, human faces — and the question is what it describes: insects, armies, or something else.
Commentators point to the command given in the earlier verses as the decisive clue. Real locusts eat grass. These must leave the grass alone.
The command given shows, I think very plainly, the error of those who apply 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. The targets of these symbolic raiders were men — all except God's sealed ones.
The verse gives three images, and each one carries its own weight.
The locusts are shaped like horses prepared for battle (v. 7). This speaks of their strength in conquest: they subdue men. "Crowns like gold" speaks of a dignity they have assumed, one that deceives people. Their faces, like the faces of men, add to the deception with a boastful, humanistic approach.
The verse does not say they wore crowns of gold. It says they wore what looked like crowns of gold. One writer presses that difference.
The crown of gold adorns the head of the Son of Man (Rev. 14:14), and also those of the triumphant elders or redeemed (Rev. 4:4). But these satanic invaders from the smoke of the pit are not really crowned, nor is real gold in question. They lay claim to a dignity God never gave them. "On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold." Their claim to royal authority is false.
Another writer reads the crowns not as royal headgear at all, and ties the human face to the mind behind the attack.
The crowns they wear are not royal crowns. They are victory wreaths, which they have taken for themselves. To the eye they looked like gold. But they were not what they appeared to be — only "as it were." The face of a man speaks of intelligence.
The front view is not the whole truth. Another writer turns the swarm around and looks at it from behind.
To those who met them they looked like military imperial power — crowned, and full of masculine energy. But seen from behind, with the secret uncovered, they were subject and weak: their faces were like human faces, their hair like the hair of women.
The same writer calls them "crowds of moral locusts with the sting of false doctrine in their tail." Their work was not to destroy prosperity on earth, but to harass and torment.
Many have read this passage as a picture of the Arab armies that swept the East. Commentators differ on how much weight that reading carries, and several object that the details do not fit.
We may admit that in history this foreshadows the swarms who overran the East under the satanic inspiration of Muhammad. But this is only a secondary fulfilment of the prophecy, and far from a complete one. The reason is clear: Muhammad's conquests were carried out with great bloodshed, while Scripture says plainly that these locusts do not inflict death.
The alternative is to read every feature as a description of character, not of physical looks.
To my mind the meaning is moral, not geographical. This kind of teaching takes away from the real force of Scripture. Is it not almost trifling to take the faces of men, the hair of women, and crowns like gold, and draw out of them a hint of a beard or moustache, with long flowing hair and a turban on top? Taken as emblems of character, the word of God keeps its dignity, and we feel it. The likeness to horses prepared for battle expresses their aggressive attitude, and the crowns like gold seem to hint at their boasted confidence that God had righteously sent them to conquer. Their faces like men's, but with women's hair, may show that, for all their claim to act with authority in God's name, they were subject to mere human authority after all, and not to God.
- Appearance. Every phrase in the verse is a comparison — like horses, like gold, like human faces. The swarm is a symbol: these locusts must leave alone the very food real locusts eat.
- Claim. The war-horse shape claims conquest. The crowns claim royal dignity. The human faces claim intelligence.
- Reality. The crowns are not real crowns, and the gold is not real gold. God never gave them that dignity. What looks like strength of their own is really subjection to a darker power.
- Target. The attack is not on fields or bodies but on minds. The sting is false doctrine, aimed at those who lack God's seal. It torments; it does not kill.
- Reading. When readers point to past armies as the fulfilment, the details resist them. Above all, this swarm may not kill. Read as marks of character, the description keeps its force.
and they had hair as women's hair, and their teeth were as of lions,
John's fifth trumpet vision describes a swarm of locusts part by part, and each part carries a meaning. Here two features stand side by side: hair like a woman's and teeth like a lion's. How can weakness and ferocity belong to the same creature?
Scripture already sets a pattern for this. Long hair marks a person's place, not a person's strength.
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.
The same detail carries other associations, and the mention of women may point to something besides obedience.
"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.
If hair means submission, the question becomes whose orders these creatures take. Commentators differ. One answer points to the ruler named later in the chapter:
Their effeminacy and subjection come next. They are subject not to God, but to Satan their leader: "They had hair as women's hair."
Another sees the detail as puncturing a religious claim: they speak as though sent from God, yet answer to men.
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.
The verse before gives these creatures human faces; this verse gives them women's hair. Read together, the outside and the inside do not match.
"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.
The teeth tell a different story from the hair.
Teeth as those of lions exposes their actual character of greed and tenacity: they catch a person and do not let go.
One writer traces the same emblem across Scripture. The lion carries a fixed sense, whichever side it stands on.
"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.)
Some readers have taken the hair and faces as clues to a particular nation's appearance. One writer rejects that approach as too small for the passage.
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.
Writers also admit where a symbol defeats them. One rejects the idea that this hair stands for joy, then owns the limit of his own reading.
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.
- Face — the human face gives them dignity and apparent independence; it is the impression they make, not the truth about them.
- Hair — women's hair is a symbol of subjection to a head, drawn from 1 Corinthians 11. It cancels the independence the face claimed.
- Master — commentators differ on whose subjects they are. Some say Satan their leader; others say the lowest human authority, hidden behind a claim to speak for God.
- Teeth — the lion's teeth show what they are for: courage, power, and a grip that catches a person and does not let go.
- Reading — the details are emblems of character, not clues to beards and turbans. Their real sting is false doctrine. Where a symbol stays unclear, saying so is better than forcing it.
and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings [was] as the sound of chariots of many horses running to war;
The fifth trumpet has released a swarm of locusts to torment people on the earth. Verse 9 shows what protects them and what announces their coming.
The verse says the breastplates were like iron. Writers read this as a picture of character, not metalwork: a heart nothing can reach.
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."
The same iron works the other way too. Nothing gets through it from outside.
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.
Scripture gives believers a breastplate too. Side by side, the two could not be more different.
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 second half of the verse is pure sound. You hear this army before you see it.
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).
The noise also marks speed. It grips the mind at once, and the grip is fierce.
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.
Some readers hunt for the exact nation and place these locusts describe. One writer warns that this search costs more than it gives.
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 armour and the war-noise picture an army, but the harm it does is not physical.
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.
One writer allows that past invasions match part of the picture. He then gives the reason they cannot be the whole answer.
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.
- Armour — the iron breastplate is a conscience hardened past pity. No appeal gets through it.
- Noise — the roar of wings, like war-chariots, marks an advance that is fast, loud and unstoppable.
- Character — the details are emblems of character, not a map of any one nation or army.
- Wound — the plague is moral, not physical. It strikes the conscience and kills no one.
- Counterfeit — it copies the believer's breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6:14). One armour guards the heart; this one hardens it.
and they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and their power [was] in their tails to hurt men five months.
The fifth trumpet has released a swarm from the abyss. This verse says where their strength lies: in their tails. Two questions follow: what does a scorpion's tail stand for, and why is the damage capped at five months?
The picture borrows a familiar insect, but it does not describe one.
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.
These raiders fight with fury and claim God's backing. Their worst weapon comes last.
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."
One writer traces this back to Isaiah, where a tail stands for a lying prophet. If the sting is a lie, the wound is inward.
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.
One writer finds a signal in the grammar of the passage.
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.
Scott quotes an older translation here; the ESV wording stands at the top of this page.
The victims here are not everyone. The plague has a target, and a limit.
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.
The stings are real. But something limits how far they may go.
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.
Commentators differ on the length. One reading takes it from the habits of the insect itself:
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.
Others have counted each day as a year and looked for a fulfilment already past:
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.
- Symbol — These are not real insects. They are kept from the food real locusts eat, so a familiar creature pictures raiders from the abyss.
- Sting — Their power sits in the tail. In Scripture, the tail is the prophet who teaches lies. The weapon is false doctrine.
- Wound — A twisted truth brings anguish of spirit. It makes life unbearable, yet leaves the body alive.
- Scope — The plague strikes only those without God's seal, understood as the unsealed of Israel. It cannot kill them.
- Limit — Satan can do nothing outside God's purpose. Five months marks the leash: a short season like the locust's, or 150 years on the year-day theory.
They have a king over them, the angel of the abyss his name in Hebrew, Abaddon, and in Greek he has [for] name Apollyon.
John has described the fifth trumpet swarm in detail — its shape, its sting, its five-month limit. Only now does he name its head. This plague is no blind accident of nature. It is an army under command. Its commander carries a name in two languages, and both mean the same thing: ruin.
These locusts have a king. One writer takes that single word as a window into the organisation of the unseen world.
The book of Daniel gives us a passing glimpse of the organisation of the underworld. There we read of demons of special ability, put in charge of Satan's interests in Persia and Greece. They are called the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece. Later we read in Revelation 9:11 of the king over the bottomless pit, named Abaddon. A king is the head of an organised dominion. He has officers to carry out his government, and subjects to obey him.
The king is named twice over, once in Hebrew and once in Greek, and the order is not thought to be accidental.
Abaddon is Hebrew, and literally means destruction. Apollyon is Greek, and means the destroyer. Why does this difference, small as it looks, appear in these meaningful titles? And why does the Hebrew name come before the Greek? The Jew is more guilty than the Gentile. So the Hebrew title Abaddon, destruction, asserts judgment on Judah in its revolt against God. It states that judgment with force, and states its certainty and finality… The order in grace as in judgment is the Jew first, then the Gentile. The Greek name Apollyon, the destroyer, shows Satan's character toward the Christian world, as his other title shows his link with Judaism.
The Hebrew name is not new in Revelation. It already runs through the Old Testament, tied there to death and the grave.
Revelation 9:11 shows that this name means the same as Apollyon, "the destroyer." The same verse describes him as "the angel of the bottomless pit." The name is perhaps not so much one of the names of Satan as his character personified. It occurs six times in the Old Testament. Three of those link it with hell (sheol): Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 27:20. One links it with death — "Destruction and Death say," Job 28:22. One links it with the grave, Psalm 88:11. In all these passages, and in Job 31:12, it is translated "destruction."
Commentators differ here. Some read the title as Satan's own character in person. One writer instead sees an angel serving under Satan, set loose on people who once carried the name of God's people.
John reveals that their king and leader is the angel of the bottomless pit (the abyss)… Satan's chief angel, the angel of the abyss, governs this destructive army. The vengeance falls on those who bear the name of the people of God (Jews), but who now, sadly, have turned away from Him. Satan's tricks and temptations made them fall from their high position. Now he, whose servants they have become, is their vengeful enemy and tormentor. So it always goes when his cunning traps his prey. Yet he is only a blind instrument carrying out the just judgment of God.
These locusts do not kill. So the ruin their king brings takes another shape.
These symbolic locusts were under the direction of a king whose name means "The Destroyer." He is described as "the angel of the bottomless pit." This shows that these locusts are an organised force. A controlling destructive power directs them, just as in nature the locust swarms of countless millions act like a well-directed army. The destroyer directs this woe, yet it does not bring men to death, for death flees from them. It brings instead the destruction of everything that makes life on earth worth living. It means darkness and torment of a spiritual kind.
Some take words like "destroy" to mean that the lost stop existing. One writer answers from this verse.
But the word does not mean ceasing to exist. The angel of the bottomless pit bears the name Apollyon, or Abaddon, the destroyer. But he can destroy nothing. It is written, "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in me is your help."
That line follows an older translation. The ESV reads, "He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper."
The Destroyer's name has an opposite. One writer sets it beside the name of Jesus.
In Revelation, Satan, or one of his chief agents, carries the name Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer (Revelation 9:11). The meaning of that name stands in contrast to the name of Jesus, the Saviour of men. Satan destroys what is good, but Jesus destroys nothing except what is evil.
- King. The swarm has a head, and a king implies a government — officers, subjects, orders obeyed. Evil is organised, not random.
- Named. Abaddon in Hebrew means destruction; Apollyon in Greek means destroyer. Hebrew first, then Greek: the Jew first, then the Gentile.
- Disputed. Is he Satan himself, Satan's chief angel, or Satan's character in person? Commentators differ.
- Limited. His army can torment, but it cannot kill. It destroys what makes life worth living, not life itself.
- Answered. He bears the name Destroyer, yet he can destroy nothing. Jesus destroys nothing but evil.