This guide draws from Revelation Explained: Verse by Verse by Richard French. The full book includes four foundation chapters, complete verse-by-verse commentary on all 22 chapters of Revelation, Old Testament foundations for each chapter, discussion questions for group study, and practical application sections.
Get the BookMost readers come to Revelation 9 expecting symbolic creatures and find a chapter that asks something harder. The verse-by-verse method shows you why God's protective seal matters, why the locusts and the 200-million army aren't the chapter's most chilling moment, and what humanity's refusal to repent actually reveals. This page is part of our verse-by-verse Revelation guide, and it picks up the trumpet sequence that follows the seal judgments of Revelation 6.
Quick Answer
Revelation 9 describes the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments during the Tribulation. A fallen star opens the bottomless pit, releasing demonic locusts that torment for five months everyone without God's protective seal. The sixth trumpet releases four angels bound at the Euphrates, leading a 200-million-strong army that kills one third of humanity. Yet the chapter's most chilling moment is its closing verses: survivors refuse to repent.
Definition
A vision of the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments: demonic locusts released from the bottomless pit to torment those without God's seal, followed by a 200-million-strong army that kills one third of humanity. The chapter ends with the unrepentant continuing in their rebellion.
Why this matters
Revelation 9 reveals two truths the rest of Revelation builds on. God's seal protects His people through tribulation. And human hearts can become so hardened that even catastrophic judgment cannot break them. Both truths shape how the remaining chapters unfold.
Context
John writes to readers who knew Joel's locust prophecy (Joel 2), the Egyptian plague pattern (Exodus 10), Isaiah's prophecy of Lucifer's fall (Isaiah 14), Ezekiel's vision of the cherub cast down (Ezekiel 28), and Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog's invasion (Ezekiel 38). Each thread weaves into the chapter.
Revelation 9:1-2 (WEB)
"The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit."
When John sees "a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth," he's witnessing something Isaiah and Ezekiel prophesied long ago. Isaiah 14:12 (KJV) declares, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" Ezekiel describes an anointed guardian cherub who was cast from God's holy mountain because of pride (Ezekiel 28:14-17). This "falling from heaven to earth" is prophetic language for Satan's rebellion and divine judgment.
The smoke imagery deliberately echoes two earlier biblical scenes of judgment. When God descended on Mount Sinai, "its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly" (Exodus 19:18). When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham "saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace" (Genesis 19:28). The phrase "smoke of a furnace" marks God's holy judgment.
Picture this scene: a mighty angel sounds a trumpet, and John's gaze shifts to a star that has fallen to earth. But this is no meteorite. In Scripture, stars often represent angelic beings, and this one has clearly fallen from its original place in God's presence. This fallen star represents Satan himself or one of his high-ranking demons. Jesus testified, "I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Later in Revelation 12:9, John sees Satan "thrown down to the earth" after losing a war in heaven. The fallen being here is this same cast-down enemy.
Notice something crucial: he is "given" the key. Even in his rage against God, Satan can only act when permitted. His authority is delegated and temporary, serving God's ultimate purposes. The Abyss doesn't open because Satan forces it. It opens because God allows it at precisely the right moment in His plan. The trumpet judgments here parallel the seal judgments of Revelation 6: each series shows God's sovereign timing over the unfolding of history.
Scripture teaches that certain fallen angels are currently imprisoned, awaiting final judgment. Peter wrote that God "cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). Jude confirmed they are "kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). The bottomless pit is this prison. What follows in Revelation 9 describes the terrifying moment when God temporarily releases these bound demons.
When the Abyss opens, thick smoke pours out and darkens the sun and sky. This smoke represents the release of forces under God's judicial authority, not chaotic evil acting independently. Even when demonic beings emerge from the Abyss, they serve His sovereign purposes in calling an unrepentant world to account. The darkening of the sun suggests both spiritual and physical consequences. Spiritually, this smoke represents deception that obscures truth. Physically, it could indicate environmental catastrophe creating literal darkness over the earth.
Revelation 9:3-4 (WEB)
"Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don't have God's seal on their foreheads."
Centuries before John's vision, the prophet Joel witnessed a devastating locust plague and recognized it as a picture of God's coming day of judgment. Joel described these locusts as an organized army: "A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen" (Joel 2:3-4). What Joel saw in shadow, John now sees in substance. The fifth trumpet brings Joel's prophecy to its ultimate fulfillment.
The locusts of Revelation 9 deliberately reverse the pattern of Egypt's eighth plague. When God judged Pharaoh, locusts devoured every green plant while people were spared (Exodus 10:12-15). Here, God commands the locusts to leave all vegetation untouched but to torment those without His seal. This reversal makes God's target unmistakable: not creation itself, but unrepentant humanity.
Out of the darkness emerge creatures John calls locusts, though they're clearly not ordinary insects. They're given power like scorpions to inflict painful stings. But here's what sets them apart: they receive specific instructions about who they can and cannot harm. These demonic beings must leave all vegetation untouched. Their sole target is people who lack God's protective seal.
This seal, described in Revelation 7, marks believers as belonging to God. It's not a visible physical mark but a spiritual reality. God knows His own, and His enemies cannot touch those under His protection. The seal here is the inverse counterpart of the mark introduced later in the book. To trace that inverse mark, see Revelation 13: The Beast and the Mark of the Beast. The seal marks ownership by God. The mark marks loyalty to the beast.
Think about what this means for you if you belong to Christ. When hell itself breaks loose, when demonic forces receive permission to torment the earth, God's people stand protected. The seal isn't something you earn or maintain through your effort. It's God's mark of ownership, and it holds firm.
Revelation 9:5-6 (WEB)
"They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them."
The scorpion imagery has a long biblical history as a symbol of painful judgment, and the five-month limit echoes the broader prophetic pattern in which God assigns specific durations to His judgments. Jesus Himself drew on this same pattern when He promised that the tribulation would be limited: "Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:22). Boundary and time limit are themselves a mercy threaded through the Old Testament's prophetic visions.
The locusts can torment but not kill. God sets a specific time limit: five months. Even in judgment, boundaries remain. The pain these creatures inflict is compared to a scorpion sting. If you've ever been stung by a scorpion, you know it's excruciating. The poison creates burning pain that can last for hours. Now imagine that level of agony continuing for five months straight.
What follows is perhaps the most terrifying detail: people will beg for death, but death will elude them. This isn't poetic exaggeration. John describes a future reality where human suffering reaches such intensity that the only escape anyone wants is to die, yet somehow death becomes impossible. Whether this involves supernatural restraint or some form of medical intervention that prevents death, the result is the same: inescapable torment designed to break human pride and drive people to repentance.
At the end of this section John pauses with a sobering reminder: "The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this" (Revelation 9:12). The fifth trumpet is complete, but the sixth and seventh trumpets still remain. The third "woe" arrives later, after the seventh trumpet announcement at the end of Revelation 11.
Revelation 9:13-16 (WEB)
"The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!' The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them."
The Euphrates River marked the far northeastern boundary of the Promised Land (Genesis 15:18). Throughout Israel's history, invading armies from Assyria, Babylon, and Persia crossed this river to attack God's people. Ezekiel prophesied a final invasion by Gog from Magog, leading a vast coalition from the far north (Ezekiel 38:15). The four angels bound at the Euphrates represent this same threat: hostile forces from beyond God's boundaries, held back until the appointed time.
When the sixth angel sounds his trumpet, a voice speaks from the golden altar in heaven. This altar represents the prayers of God's people, showing that what follows happens in direct response to the petitions of the saints. The martyrs who cried out "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" in Revelation 6:10 are about to see further answers to their prayers. The four horns of the altar symbolize power and authority extending to the four corners of the earth. Nothing falls outside God's jurisdiction. His justice reaches everywhere.
The voice commands the release of four angels bound at the Euphrates River. Like the demons released from the Abyss, these four angels have been held in check, waiting for God's appointed time. Notice the precision: they've been prepared for this exact hour, day, month, and year. Nothing about this judgment is random or uncontrolled. These four angels lead to the death of one third of humanity. To put this in perspective, if this happened today with a world population of eight billion, we're talking about nearly 2.7 billion deaths. The scale of destruction is almost unimaginable.
John hears the size of this army: 200 million. This astronomical number could represent either a massive human military coalition or a demonic force. Either way, the size indicates overwhelming power and suggests global conflict rather than a regional skirmish. Some see this as a literal human army, perhaps a coalition of eastern nations. Others interpret it as a demonic host given visible form. John doesn't resolve the debate for us. What matters is the result: unprecedented death and destruction sweeping across the earth.
Revelation 9:20-21 (WEB)
"The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can't see, hear, or walk. They didn't repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts."
The pattern of stubborn rebellion in the face of overwhelming divine signs runs straight back to Pharaoh in Exodus. Just as Pharaoh hardened his heart despite clear signs of God's power, so the people in Revelation 9:20-21 refuse to repent despite devastating plagues. Joel called the people of his own day to urgent repentance with the same gospel of mercy: "Turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness" (Joel 2:13). What Joel offered, the survivors here refuse.
Here's the most tragic part of the entire chapter. After all these devastating judgments, after billions of deaths and months of torment, the survivors refuse to change. They continue worshiping demons and idols. They persist in murder, occult practices, sexual immorality, and theft.
Why doesn't judgment produce repentance? Paul explains in Romans 2:4-5: "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath."
Judgment alone doesn't soften hard hearts. It's God's kindness that leads to repentance. Those who have consistently rejected His kindness won't suddenly embrace Him because of punishment. Like Pharaoh before them, they harden their hearts further with each plague. This reveals an uncomfortable truth: there comes a point when people become so committed to their rebellion that even overwhelming evidence of God's existence and power won't change their minds. They would rather die in their sins than bow before their Creator.
The same verse-by-verse method that opened up Revelation 9 applies to all 22 chapters. Revelation 9 is the second of the three trumpet "woes," and the third woe arrives in Revelation 11:14 alongside the seventh trumpet announcement of the kingdom. The bowl judgments in Revelation 16 follow the same pattern of intensifying judgment, building on the seals of Revelation 6 and the trumpets here. The book covers each chapter using the same verse-by-verse method, with Old Testament foundations, theological synthesis, and discussion questions for group study throughout. For the full method and the chapter-by-chapter directory, see the complete verse-by-verse study guide.
This spoke covers five critical verse units from Revelation 9. Chapter 13 of the complete book walks through all twenty-one verses with full Old Testament foundations from Joel, Exodus, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, theological synthesis on God's sovereignty over evil and the hardness of unrepentant hearts, practical application sections, and discussion questions for group study. The book also includes the same depth of treatment for all 22 chapters of Revelation.
In Scripture, stars often represent angelic beings, and this one has clearly fallen from its original place in God's presence. The fallen star represents Satan himself or a high-ranking demon. Jesus testified, "I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18), and Revelation 12:9 shows Satan "thrown down to the earth" after losing a war in heaven. Notice he is "given" the key. Even in his rage against God, Satan can only act when permitted. His authority is delegated and temporary, serving God's ultimate purposes. The Abyss does not open because Satan forces it. It opens because God allows it at precisely the right moment in His plan.
The locusts are clearly not ordinary insects. Their description combines features that do not exist together in nature: horse-like bodies, human faces, lion teeth, scorpion tails, and crowns. They are best understood as demonic beings taking a form John describes using imagery available to him. Whether they manifest in visible form or work through spiritual oppression, their effect will be real torment for those without God's seal. The fifth trumpet brings Joel's ancient locust prophecy to its ultimate fulfillment. What Joel saw in shadow, John now sees in substance.
In Hebrew, Abaddon means "destruction." In Greek, Apollyon means "destroyer." Both names point to the same reality: this being exists to destroy and devastate. Many Bible scholars identify this king as either Satan himself or a high-ranking demon serving under Satan's command. His rule over these demonic forces shows how hell's hierarchy operates. Even among fallen angels, there is structure and chain of command. The dual naming in Hebrew and Greek emphasizes that this judgment affects all nations. Whether you speak Hebrew or Greek, whether you are Jewish or Gentile, the message is the same: destruction has been unleashed under the authority of the Destroyer himself.
John hears the size of this army: 200 million. This astronomical number could represent either a massive human military coalition or a demonic force. Either way, the size indicates overwhelming power and suggests global conflict rather than a regional skirmish. Some see this as a literal human army, perhaps a coalition of eastern nations. Others interpret it as a demonic host given visible form. John does not resolve the debate for us. What matters is the result: unprecedented death sweeping across the earth, killing one third of humanity. The Euphrates location echoes Ezekiel 38's prophecy of Gog's invasion from the far north, held back until God's appointed moment.
The seal, described in Revelation 7, marks believers as belonging to God. It is not a visible physical mark but a spiritual reality. God knows His own, and His enemies cannot touch those under His protection. When hell itself breaks loose, when demonic forces receive permission to torment the earth, God's people stand protected. The seal is not something you earn or maintain through your effort. It is God's mark of ownership, and it holds firm. The protective seal here is the inverse of the mark of the beast in Revelation 13. One marks ownership by God. The other marks loyalty to the beast.
Paul explains in Romans 2:4-5 that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Judgment alone does not soften hard hearts. It is God's kindness that does. Those who have consistently rejected His kindness will not suddenly embrace Him because of punishment. Like Pharaoh before them, they harden their hearts further with each plague. This reveals an uncomfortable truth: there comes a point when people become so committed to their rebellion that even overwhelming evidence of God's existence and power will not change their minds. They would rather die in their sins than bow before their Creator. The pattern of stubborn rebellion that began in Egypt repeats here on a global scale.
This guide is a sample of Chapter 13 from Revelation Explained: Verse by Verse. The full chapter applies the verse-by-verse method to all twenty-one verses of Revelation 9, with Old Testament foundations from Joel, Exodus, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, theological synthesis, practical application, and discussion questions for group study.
Get the Book