The first four trumpets of Revelation 8 struck the natural world — land, sea, rivers, and sky. With Revelation 9 the judgments turn directly against people, and they take on a darker character. These are the first two of the three “woes” the eagle announced. The fifth trumpet releases a horde of demonic locusts that torment but do not kill. The sixth trumpet unleashes an army that kills a third of mankind. And the chapter ends with the most chilling line in the whole sequence: even after all of this, the survivors will not repent.
Revelation 9 is a hard chapter, but it is a true one. Let us walk through it verse by verse, reading it as real prophecy of the Tribulation still to come.
Chapter Outline
- The Fifth Trumpet — The First Woe (v.1-12)
- A fallen star opens the bottomless pit (v.1-2)
- Smoke darkens the sun, and demonic locusts emerge (v.2-3)
- They torment only the unsealed, for five months (v.4-6)
- The terrifying appearance of the locusts (v.7-10)
- Their king, the angel of the abyss, named Destroyer (v.11-12)
- The Sixth Trumpet — The Second Woe (v.13-21)
- A voice from the golden altar releases four bound angels (v.13-14)
- The angels prepared for a precise hour, day, month, and year (v.15)
- An army of two hundred million (v.16)
- The horses and the threefold plague of fire, smoke, and brimstone (v.17-19)
- A third of mankind killed — and the survivors refuse to repent (v.20-21)
Capture — What the Chapter Shows
Before interpreting, observe carefully what the chapter sets before us.
First, an opening of the abyss. A star, spoken of as a “him,” falls from heaven and is given a key. He unlocks “the bottomless pit,” and smoke billows up like the smoke of a great furnace, darkening sun and air.
Second, a plague of locusts — but not natural locusts. They have a king, they obey restrictions, they harm only people without God’s seal, and they do not eat vegetation. They sting like scorpions, and their torment lasts five months.
Third, a longing for death. The chapter records a horror unique in Scripture: people will seek death and not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them.
Fourth, a nightmarish description. John strains language to describe the locusts — like horses prepared for battle, with crowns, human-like faces, hair like women, teeth like lions, iron breastplates, wings that roar like chariots, and scorpion tails.
Fifth, a precise timing. The four angels of the sixth trumpet are released for an exact appointed moment — “the hour and day and month and year.” The judgment is scheduled to the hour.
Sixth, a massive army. A force numbered at two hundred million, with horses breathing fire, smoke, and brimstone, kills a third of all humanity.
Finally, a hardened response. The chapter ends not with repentance but with refusal — the survivors keep their idols, their murders, their sorceries, their immorality, and their thefts.
Analyze — What It Means
Revelation is prophecy. We read it literally where the text intends literally, and we let the symbols be explained by the rest of Scripture.
Verses 1-2 — The fallen star and the abyss. John sees “a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth.” The personal pronoun — he is given “the key” — shows this is not a literal burning rock but an intelligent being, an angelic figure. He is given the key to “the bottomless pit,” the abyss, the holding place of certain demonic spirits. When it opens, smoke pours out and darkens the sky. The abyss is real, and it is locked — and only God grants the key. Even the unleashing of hell happens under divine permission.
Verses 3-6 — The demonic locusts. Out of the smoke come “locusts,” but they behave like nothing in nature. Real locusts devour vegetation; these are explicitly forbidden to touch the grass, plants, or trees. They are commanded instead to attack only “the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” This connects directly back to Revelation 7 — the sealed servants of God are untouched. The locusts torment, but they may not kill, and their torment is capped at five months. Their sting is like a scorpion’s. The most plausible reading is that these are demonic spirits released to afflict unbelieving humanity. The torment is so severe that people will actively seek death and be denied it.
“And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.” (Revelation 9:6)
This is a sober window into the nature of sin’s wages. A world that has rejected the Author of life finds even death withheld from it.
Verses 7-10 — Their appearance. John describes the locusts in a string of comparisons — “like” horses, “like” crowns of gold, faces “like” the faces of men, teeth “like” lions, wings sounding “like” chariots. The repeated word “like” signals that he is reaching for language to depict something genuinely otherworldly. As David Guzik has noted, John is an honest witness describing an unprecedented horror in the only terms a first-century man had. Whatever their precise form, the effect is clear: an army of terrifying, organized, intelligent tormentors.
Verses 11-12 — Their king. Unlike natural locusts, which Proverbs 30:27 says “have no king,” these have a ruler — “the angel of the abyss.” His name is given in both Hebrew and Greek: Abaddon and Apollyon, both meaning Destroyer. This is no benevolent force. The very identity of this being is destruction. The first woe is past; two remain.
Verses 13-15 — The sixth trumpet and the four angels. A voice comes from the horns of the golden altar — the same altar where the prayers of the saints were offered in chapter 8. Judgment again proceeds from the place of prayer. Four angels, “bound at the great river Euphrates,” are released. These are evil angels; good angels are never said to be bound. And they have been kept ready for an exact moment — “the hour and day and month and year.” God’s timetable is precise to the hour. Nothing in the Tribulation happens early or late.
Verses 16-19 — The army of two hundred million. An army numbered at two hundred million is released. The horses breathe fire, smoke, and brimstone, and these three plagues kill a third of mankind. Combined with the deaths of the earlier judgments, an enormous portion of the world’s population perishes. Whether this army is entirely demonic or a demonically empowered human force, the text presents it as an instrument of divine judgment, loosed at God’s appointed time and bounded by His command.
Verses 20-21 — The refusal to repent. Here is the heart of the chapter, and its most disturbing line. After demonic torment and the death of a third of humanity, the survivors — “the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues” — still do not turn to God.
“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.” (Revelation 9:20)
Verse 21 lists what they will not let go: their murders, their sorceries, their immorality, and their thefts. The word translated “sorceries” is pharmakeia — a word bound up with drugs, potions, and occult practice. This exposes a hard truth: judgment alone does not produce repentance. The problem with the human heart is not a lack of evidence; it is a love of sin. Pharaoh saw ten plagues and hardened. The Tribulation world will see far worse and still refuse the God who alone can save it.
Compare — Scripture with Scripture
Revelation 9 is anchored in the wider testimony of Scripture, which guards us from both fear and speculation.
The locust plague of Joel. The fifth trumpet draws heavily on Joel’s prophecy. Joel 2 describes a locust army with the appearance of horses, the sound of chariots, and the orderly advance of trained soldiers — “their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like war horses, so they run” (Joel 2:4-5). Joel saw the Day of the Lord arriving like an unstoppable invading host. Revelation 9 shows that same Day, now intensified and demonic in character. Joel’s repeated plea — “return to Me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12) — makes the refusal of Revelation 9:20-21 all the more tragic.
The abyss and bound spirits. The bottomless pit appears again in Revelation 11, 17, and 20, where Satan himself is finally bound there. Peter writes that God “did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4), and Jude 6 says the same. The demons who begged the Lord not to send them “into the abyss” in Luke 8:31 dreaded exactly this place. Scripture consistently presents a holding place for certain demonic spirits, locked until God permits its opening.
Judgment that does not produce repentance. The hardening of the Tribulation world echoes Pharaoh in Exodus, who watched plague after plague and would not let Israel go. Paul warned in 2 Thessalonians 2 that those who “did not receive the love of the truth” would be given over to “a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.” Romans 1 describes the same downward spiral — God giving people over to the sin they refuse to release. Revelation 9:20-21 is the end of that road: a world fully exposed to God’s power and still in love with its idols.
The seal of God as protection. The locusts may harm only those without God’s seal — a direct link to the 144,000 sealed in Revelation 7 and, behind that, to Ezekiel 9, where the marked are spared while the unmarked are struck. Throughout Scripture, belonging to God is the only true security when judgment falls.
Execute — How We Respond
Revelation 9 is meant to move us, not merely inform us. How should it shape our lives?
Take the reality of evil seriously. Revelation 9 pulls back the curtain on a real, organized, intelligent realm of darkness with a king named Destroyer. Do not be naive about spiritual evil — and do not be afraid of it. It is real, but it is leashed. It does nothing without permission. Stand firm in Christ, who holds the keys.
Do not presume on tomorrow’s repentance. The most sobering lesson here is that hardness of heart can become permanent. The survivors of the sixth trumpet have seen everything and still will not turn. If you have been putting off coming to Christ, learn this: a heart that resists God grows harder, not softer, with time. Repent today, while the heart is still tender.
Reject the works of the hands. The Tribulation world clings to idolatry, occultism, murder, immorality, and theft. These are not exotic sins; they are perennial human sins, refined and updated. Examine your own life. What “work of your hands” do you defend instead of surrendering it to God?
Treasure the seal you have. If you are in Christ, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. The torment reserved for the unsealed is not your future. Let that drive you not to pride but to gratitude — and to urgent love for those still unsealed.
Warn the lost with compassion. Revelation 9 should make every believer an evangelist. The horror of an unrepentant end is not an abstraction; it is the destiny of real people we know. Let the chapter break our hearts and loosen our tongues.
Insights — The Truth to Carry
Carry this from Revelation 9: the deepest human problem is not a lack of evidence about God, but a heart that loves its sin — and only the grace of God, received before the heart hardens, can change it.
This chapter shows judgment at its most fearsome — the abyss opened, a king named Destroyer, an army that kills a third of mankind. But the most frightening verse is not about locusts or armies. It is verse 20: “did not repent.” A world that has felt the full weight of God’s power, that knows beyond doubt these plagues come from heaven, still bows to idols of gold and wood that “can neither see nor hear nor walk.”
That is the warning Revelation 9 presses on every reader. Suffering does not automatically soften a heart; sometimes it only reveals how hard the heart already is. Repentance is a gift of grace, and grace is offered now. The God who keeps the demonic forces of the abyss on a leash, who schedules judgment to the very hour, is the same God who still says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Hear Him today.
Teaching the Word. Watching the Times. — SmithForChrist