Revelation 9

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Revelation 9 sounds the fifth and sixth trumpets, the first two of the three "woes." A star fallen from heaven unlocks the Abyss, smoke pours out, and from the smoke come locusts with the power of scorpions, told to torment for five months only those without the seal of God. They look like war horses with human faces, women's hair, lions' teeth, iron breastplates, and stinging tails, and their king is the angel of the Abyss, Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek. The sixth trumpet releases four angels bound at the Euphrates and an army of two hundred million whose horses breathe fire, smoke, and sulfur, killing a third of humanity. The rest do not repent.

장 주석 열기

Revelation 9 is the chapter people have in mind when they call Revelation frightening, and it earns the reputation. The fifth trumpet sounds, a star that has fallen from heaven is handed the key to the Abyss, and when the shaft is opened, smoke pours out like a furnace and blots out the sun. Out of the smoke come locusts, but not locusts: they have the sting of scorpions, the look of horses armored for battle, human faces, women's hair, lions' teeth, iron breastplates, and wings that sound like an army of chariots. Their king is named Destroyer in two languages. Yet the most important words in the description are the limits. They may not touch the grass or the trees. They may not touch anyone who has the seal of God. They may not kill. They have five months. The sixth trumpet is worse, four angels released from the Euphrates at an hour fixed in advance, and behind them a cavalry of two hundred million whose horses breathe fire and sulfur and kill a third of the human race. John is drawing on the locust plague of Egypt, the locust army of Joel, and the Parthian horsemen every Roman feared, and piling the images on top of one another until they cannot be seen, only felt. Then the chapter ends with two quiet verses that are its real subject. The rest of mankind, the ones who survived, did not repent. They went on worshiping idols that cannot see or hear or walk, and went on with murder, sorcery, immorality, and theft. The trumpets have done all that terror can do, and it was not enough.

핵심 본문

Revelation 9:1-6 Revelation 9:13-16 Revelation 9:20-21 Joel 2:1-11 Exodus 10:12-15 Revelation 7:3

Historical and literary context

Locust swarms were the ancient world's most feared natural disaster, and John's description draws on the plague of Exodus 10 and on Joel 1 and 2, where locusts are pictured as an invading army with horses' faces and lions' teeth. The Euphrates was Rome's eastern frontier, beyond which lay the Parthians, whose cavalry were the terror of Roman armies; a vast mounted host from the east is what a first-century reader would picture. "Apollyon," the Destroyer, may be a barb at Domitian, who liked to be identified with the god Apollo, whose emblem was the locust. The five months match the natural span of a locust season. The refusal to repent echoes Pharaoh under the plagues.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 to 6, the fifth trumpet: the fallen star, the opened Abyss, the smoke, and the locusts with limited power and a five-month term of torment so severe that people will seek death. Verses 7 to 11 describe the locusts and name their king. Verse 12 marks the passing of the first woe. Verses 13 to 16, the sixth trumpet: the voice from the altar, the four angels at the Euphrates prepared for the exact hour, and the army of two hundred million. Verses 17 to 19 describe the horses of fire, smoke, and sulfur that kill a third of mankind. Verses 20 and 21 record that the survivors did not repent of idolatry, murder, sorcery, immorality, or theft.

Why this chapter matters

Revelation 9 is the book's most vivid picture of evil unleashed and yet limited: the locusts may torment but not kill, for five months, and only those without God's seal; the four angels are released at an appointed hour. Every horror is on a leash. The chapter's real weight falls on its last two verses, where plagues that should drive people to repentance do not. That diagnosis, that judgment by itself does not change hearts, prepares for the different strategy of chapters 10 and 11, where the church's witness, not the trumpets, brings people to give glory to God.

Interpretive tension to watch

Readers differ over whether the locusts and the horsemen are demonic forces, human armies described in visionary language, or both at once, and over whether the trumpets cover the whole age between the two comings or a final period. The "star that had fallen" is Satan to some interpreters and an angel sent by God to others; the text says the key "was given" to it, which keeps God in control either way. The plain sense of the chapter is easier than its symbols: evil is real, permitted, bounded, and does not have the last word.

이 장을 위한 질문

The locusts are told what they may and may not do, and for how long. What does that say about the limits of evil?
Verses 20 and 21 report that the survivors did not repent. Why might suffering harden people rather than turn them?
How does the seal of God in verse 4 relate to the sealing of chapter 7?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

노트에 추가

1 And at the sounding of the fifth angel I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth: and there was given to him the key of the great deep. 2 And he made the great deep open and a smoke went up from it, like the smoke of a great oven; and the sun and the air were made dark because of the smoke. 3 And from the smoke locusts came out on the earth; and power was given them, like the power of scorpions. 4 And they were ordered to do no damage to the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only to such men as have not the mark of God on their brows. 5 And orders were given them not to put them to death, but to give them great pain for five months: and their pain was as the pain from the wound of a scorpion. 6 And in those days men will be hoping for death, and it will not come to them; and they will have a great desire for death, and death will go in flight from them. 7 And the forms of the locusts were like horses made ready for war; and on their heads they had crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8 And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breastplates like iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of carriages, like an army of horses rushing to the fight. 10 And they have pointed tails like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to give men wounds for five months. 11 They have over them as king the angel of the great deep: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek language Apollyon. 12 The first Trouble is past: see, there are still two Troubles to come. 13 And at the sounding of the sixth angel a voice came to my ears from the horns of the gold altar which is before God, 14 Saying to the sixth angel who had the horn, Make free the four angels who are chained at the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were made free, who were ready for the hour and day and month and year, that they might put to death a third part of men. 16 And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: the number of them came to my ears. 17 And so I saw the horses in the vision, and those who were seated on them, having breastplates of fire and glass and of burning stone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and a smell of burning. 18 By these evils a third part of men was put to death, by the fire, and the smoke, and the burning smell which came out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails: because their tails are like snakes, and have heads, and with them they give wounds. 20 And the rest of the people, who were not put to death by these evils, were not turned from the works of their hands, but went on giving worship to evil spirits, and images of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which have no power of seeing or hearing or walking: 21 And they had no regret for putting men to death, or for their use of secret arts, or for the evil desires of the flesh, or for taking the property of others.

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