The Fifth Trumpet: Bottomless Pit Opened
“Shaft of the abyss” (τὸ φρέαρ τῆς ἀβύσσου) — φρέαρ (phrear) denotes a “well,” “pit,” or more precisely a vertical shaft or opening, not the abyss itself. The phrase describes an access point leading to the abyss (ἄβυσσος). The term ἄβυσσος (abyssos) means “deep,” “unfathomable,” or “bottomless,” referring to a depth without measure rather than a “pit” as such. The traditional English rendering “bottomless pit” (e.g., KJV) reflects this idea interpretively and has been retained due to longstanding usage, though “abyss” more directly represents the Greek term.
The Greek does not decisively distinguish between Wormwood, “it,” in Revelation 8:10-11 and the star in Revelation 9:1 as “him.” In both passages, the noun is ἀστήρ, “star,” which is grammatically masculine. Therefore, masculine agreement by itself does not prove personhood. In Revelation 9:1, αὐτῷ is dative singular and agrees naturally with ἀστήρ, but it can be rendered “to him” or “to it” depending on context. Likewise, Revelation 9:2 does not contain an explicit pronoun “he”; ἤνοιξεν is simply third-person singular, “he/she/it opened.” The reason English often uses “him/he” is not the pronoun or verb form alone, but the agency in the context: the star is given a key and opens the abyss. Thus, the grammar permits “it,” but the action favors a personal heavenly being. So, the star can be a "he" or an "it" depending on the interpretive position one takes.
Re 9:1, Re 12:9, Re 12:12 — This reference is not here to imply that the star of 9:1 is Satan. It is only suggesting the possibility. Revelation 9 should be treated with great care as it makes heavy use of symbols. Thus, we cannot know for sure whether the star in 9:1 is a literal star or something else, or both something else and a literal star.
Re 9:1, Re 20:1 — Key of the bottomless pit.
Re 9:2, Re 16:10 — Darkness is a theme of Revelation. This theme is connected to the "day of the Lord" and does not imply that these events are the same. They mainly display the characteristics of the day of the Lord.
Re 9:3, Re 12:14, Deuteronomy 8:15 — Scorpions in Deuteronomy 8:15 are linked to Israel’s time in the wilderness: “Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;” This may provide background for Revelation 9:3, where the locusts are given power like scorpions. If the scorpion imagery is meant to recall the wilderness, then this plague may relate to the same broad period as Revelation 12:14, when the woman is given “two wings of a great eagle” to “fly into the wilderness” after Satan is cast down from heaven. Deuteronomy 8 also frames the wilderness as a warning about allegiance: if Israel forgets the LORD and goes after other gods, they will “surely perish,” even “as the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face” (Deut. 8:19–20).
Re 2:11, Re 6:6, Re 7:3, Re 9:4 — Mentions of “not harming” or “not hurting” appear in Revelation 2:11, 6:6, 7:3, and 9:4. These references should not be treated as the same event or action simply because similar language is used. Revelation 7:3 and 9:4 may seem closely related because both involve the sealed servants of God, but they differ in the actors and purposes. In Revelation 7:3, the four angels are told not to harm the earth, sea, or trees “until” the servants of God are sealed. In Revelation 9:4, however, the locusts are commanded not to harm the grass, any green thing, or any tree "at all", but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Re 7:1, Re 8:7, Re 9:4 — Revelation often refers to all creation by using the terms earth, sea, and heaven together (5:13, 10:6, 12:12, etc.). All creation is represented by these three together, and when divided, heaven is distinct from the earth and sea. When the text here says, "earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree," it is excluding heaven. The inclusion of the tree in the text appears to specify that this is not just withholding harm from man on earth but also from creation itself. Then, in 7:2, we see the scope reduced to "earth and the sea" once the point is made, and then back again in 7:3. This kind of use for "tree" appears a few times in Revelation 8:7 and 9:4. In these instances, tree is again providing scope of effect rather than being used to describe a particular moment. So, when the 144,000 are sealed before any "tree" is hurt, it is not by necessity referring to the first few trumpet plagues or the first woe. The word "tree" in these cases is used only to help define the scope of effect. This is also how the terms earth, sea, and heaven are used.
Re 9:4, Re 16:2 — Seal of God to mark of beast pivot. In Rev 9:4, the 144,000 appear to be present, and in Rev 16:2, they are not because the mark of the beast is the identifiable mark.
Re 9:5, Re 16:2 — Revelation 9:5 and 16:2 may suggest a connection between the mark of the beast and the locusts in Revelation 9, as both relate to pain rather than explicit death. This does not mean the first woe occurs at the same time as the first bowl. Both passages involve a marked or sealed distinction. In Revelation 9, the mark of the beast is not yet mentioned; instead, the locusts are permitted to harm only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. This absence should be noticed, though it should be handled carefully. The text does not explicitly say the mark is not present yet; it simply has not introduced it here.
By Revelation 16:2, however, after what appears to be the reaping of the saints, the text speaks directly of those who have “the mark of the beast” and who worship his image. Both passages also involve painful harm rather than immediate death: Revelation 9 describes torment like the sting of a scorpion, while Revelation 16 describes a loathsome and malignant sore on those who have the mark of the beast. This may suggest that Revelation 9 prepares for, or is connected to, the later mark-of-the-beast judgment, without requiring the first woe and first bowl to be the same event.
Re 9:5, Re 9:10
Re 6:1, Re 9:7, Re 9:16, Re 19:11 — Horse imagery in Revelation is repeatedly connected with judgment and war: the first four seals bring conquest, sword, famine, and death through horsemen (Rev. 6:1–8); the fifth trumpet describes the locusts as “like horses prepared for battle” (Rev. 9:7); the sixth trumpet involves a vast mounted army (Rev. 9:16–19); and Christ returns on a white horse as the One who “judges and wages war” in righteousness (Rev. 19:11). This pattern shows that, within Revelation itself, horses function as a recurring image of war-like judgment and large-scale conflict.
Re 2:10, Re 3:11, Re 4:4, Re 4:10, Re 6:2, Re 9:7, Re 12:1, Re 14:14 — The locusts are said to have “crowns like gold” on their heads (Rev. 9:7). Revelation is often specific when speaking of crowns, so the wording should be noticed. John does not simply say they had golden crowns, but crowns “like” gold. This may suggest that they appear to have a measure of authority, but they are not identified as kings themselves. Their authority is real enough to act, but it is limited and derived. This also distinguishes them from the ten kings later in Revelation, who are explicitly called kings and receive authority as kings (Rev. 17:12).
Re 9:7, Daniel 7:8 — The phrase “faces like the faces of men” may be important for understanding the identity or form of the locusts. Like Daniel 7:8, where the little horn has “eyes like the eyes of a man” and a mouth speaking great things, the human-like feature may point to more than appearance; it may indicate personal, intelligent, human-like identity within the symbol. Thus, while the locusts are described with many symbolic features, their faces may suggest that they are not ordinary insects, nor should they be reduced to modern machines such as the popular “attack helicopter” interpretation. The vision appears to present a symbolically rich force, possibly involving men or human agents, who are given authority to move quickly and administer a painful sting against those who do not have the seal of God. This should be held carefully, since Revelation 9 does not explicitly identify the locusts as men; nevertheless, the “faces like men” language gives textual reason to look for intelligent, personal agents behind the imagery rather than literal locusts or technological speculation.
Re 9:8, Re 9:7 — Rev 9:7–8, "hair like women's hair" — The description of the locusts is a sustained series of ὡς/ὅμοιος comparisons — like horses prepared for battle, as it were crowns like gold, like men's faces, like women's hair, like lions' teeth, like iron breastplates, wings sounding like chariots — each contributing a single visual stroke to one composite portrait of dread. No clause in the series is developed allegorically, and the hair should not be made to bear more interpretive weight than its neighbors. Its plain sense is long, loose, unbound hair on beings with the faces of men — a detail whose function within the portrait is wildness and dishonorable form. In its register of degradation, unshorn male hair canonically marks the man reduced to a feral, beast-like state — the precedent case being Nebuchadnezzar, whose "hair grew like eagles' [feathers]" in his bestial humbling (Dan 4:33 [MT 4:30]). Daniel supplies the category — dehumanized wildness — not a quotation. The surrounding details cooperate: the crowns are doubly hedged, "as it were crowns, like gold" (ὡς στέφανοι ὅμοιοι χρυσῷ, 9:7), a qualification John notably drops for the elders' genuine golden crowns (4:4) — the horde is quasi-crowned above and feral below, not kings but a wild, dishonorable mass. Taken together, the portrait depicts administrators of anguish in terrible form: a locust-invasion in the prophetic idiom of a human wave (Joel 1:6, "a nation... its teeth are the teeth of a lion"; cf. Jer 51:14; Nah 3:15–17), yet pointedly not natural locusts — they spare the vegetation locusts devour (9:4) and have a king, which locusts do not (Prov 30:27; theirs is the angel of the abyss, 9:11). Their mandate is torment without death (9:5, "not to kill them, but to torment"), distinguishing this first woe from the second, in which a third of mankind is killed (9:15, 18). The sequence is therefore anguish before slaughter: a wild, long-haired, quasi-royal horde that breaks men without killing them, followed by the army that kills.
Re 9:8, Joel 1:6 — Again, more links to Israel being cast out of the land, "For a nation has invaded my land... its teeth are the teeth of a lion."
The wings in Revelation 9:9 should probably be understood symbolically, not merely as literal insect wings. In Revelation, wings are connected with movement. The four living creatures have wings around the throne (Rev. 4:8), and if they are connected with the cherubim of the Old Testament, their wings recall the movement of God’s heavenly throne and glory. Ezekiel sees the living creatures moving with the wheels and the glory of YHWH, and he later identifies those living creatures as cherubim (Ezek. 1:19–24; 10:15–20). Daniel also sees the Ancient of Days seated on a throne with wheels of burning fire (Dan. 7:9), and 1 Chronicles 28:18 connects the cherubim with “the chariot” of the ark.
This helps frame the wings in Revelation 9:9. The locusts’ wings are not described for decoration, but for motion and force: “the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.” These are symbols of a hostile power taking flight, moving forward, and acting in war-like judgment. The comparison to chariots shows that the wings communicate movement, speed, and military force.
This same movement idea appears again in Revelation 12:14, where the woman is given “the two wings of the great eagle” so that she may fly into the wilderness to be nourished away from the serpent. In Revelation 9:9 the wings move the locusts into judgment; in Revelation 12:14 the wings move the woman into preservation. Thus, the wing imagery is not random. Revelation uses wings to communicate motion in the form of flight as its symbol. In Revelation 4:8 the throne itself is not shown taking flight, but the winged living creatures belong to the throne setting. In Revelation 9:9 and 12:14, however, wings are directly connected with movement: one force moves to harm those not sealed by God, while the woman moves to safety under God’s protection.
Re 4:8, Re 9:9, Re 12:14 — Wings are mentioned only three times in Revelation: with the living creatures around the throne (Rev. 4:8), with the locusts whose wings sound like chariots rushing to battle (Rev. 9:9), and with the woman who is given wings to flee into the wilderness (Rev. 12:14). In each case, the imagery is connected with movement, throne/chariot imagery, or flight. Thus, the wings of Revelation 9:9 likely emphasize the locusts’ warlike movement rather than merely describing literal insect anatomy.
Re 6:1, Re 9:7, Re 9:16, Re 19:11 — Horse imagery in Revelation is repeatedly connected with judgment and war: the first four seals bring conquest, sword, famine, and death through horsemen (Rev. 6:1–8); the fifth trumpet describes the locusts as “like horses prepared for battle” (Rev. 9:7); the sixth trumpet involves a vast mounted army (Rev. 9:16–19); and Christ returns on a white horse as the One who “judges and wages war” in righteousness (Rev. 19:11). This pattern shows that, within Revelation itself, horses function as a recurring image of war-like judgment and large-scale conflict.
Re 9:5, Re 9:10
Abaddon/Apollyon is best understood here by function: an abyssal, demonic angelic ruler, the king over the locusts from the bottomless pit. The names mean destruction/destroyer, but Revelation 9 does not identify him as Satan, the sea beast, or the false prophet.
Revelation 9:11 calls Abaddon/Apollyon “the angel of the bottomless pit” and presents him as king over the locusts. His Hebrew name, Abaddon, is connected with destruction, and his Greek name, Apollyon, means “Destroyer.” This title fits the nature of the judgment in Revelation 9, where the locusts are not random creatures but an organized host under a destroying king.
This should not be collapsed into an identification with Satan. Revelation names Satan elsewhere as the dragon, the old serpent, the Devil, and Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), but Revelation 9:11 gives this figure a different title and role: the angel of the abyss who rules the locusts. Abaddon/Apollyon should therefore be treated as a distinct abyssal ruler unless the text itself gives stronger reason to identify him otherwise.
A related possibility is that Abaddon/Apollyon is also the fallen star at the beginning of Revelation 9. John sees “a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth,” and the key of the bottomless pit is given to him (Rev. 9:1). If this fallen star is the same figure later named Abaddon/Apollyon, then the picture may be that the angel of the abyss is given limited authority to open the bottomless pit and release the locusts for this specific judgment. However, Revelation 9 does not explicitly identify the fallen star with Abaddon/Apollyon, so this should be held as a possible inference rather than a stated fact.
The clearer theme is that this destroying king is still restrained by God. The locusts are allowed to torment those who do not have the seal of God, but they are forbidden to harm those who are sealed (Rev. 9:4). Thus, the king of destruction may harm those who belong to the realm of rebellion, but he cannot harm those who belong to God. Abaddon/Apollyon is not acting independently; his authority is limited by God’s command.
The KJV/TR opens with καί — "And they had"; the critical text reads ἔχουσιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῶν βασιλέα — "they have a king over them" — without the conjunction.
Job 26:6 — God is greater than Abaddon.
The Sixth Trumpet: 200,000,000 Army
Important Note: Again, we seem to be in the theme of supernatural plagues and yet still literal ones too. The spiritual and material worlds meet here again. These are judgments on the whole earth, as it says "the third part of men." If this is not the whole world, the scope points to those men previously "which have not the seal of God in their foreheads."
Re 9:13, Re 16:7
The voice commanding the release may be the altar messenger of 8:3, since Revelation often presents angels or living creatures as having delegated authority to announce and bring about judgment, as when the living creatures say "Come" in Revelation 6. This would fit the role of messengers in Revelation as servants who deliver God's messages and administer His judgments. The four bound messengers themselves should not be identified with the saints; in context they are released as agents of judgment connected with the killing of a third part of mankind.
Re 9:14, Re 16:12, Isaiah 8:7-8 — The Old Testament background of the Euphrates strengthens the connection between Revelation 9:14 and 16:12, but it does not require the two passages to describe the same event. In the Old Testament, the Euphrates is the great boundary river of the promised land, the edge of Israel’s dominion, and the direction from which hostile imperial powers such as Assyria and Babylon are associated. Isaiah 8:7-8 even uses the waters of the Euphrates as an image of Assyria’s invading power overflowing the land.
Therefore, when Revelation returns to “the great river Euphrates,” the imagery is not random. The river evokes boundary, empire, invasion, and judgment. In Revelation 9:14, the Euphrates is the place where bound destructive powers are released. In Revelation 16:12, the Euphrates is dried up so the way is prepared for the kings from the east. These passages share an Old Testament judgment setting, but their actions are distinct. The shared Euphrates imagery points to a common theme of whole-earth judgment and war, not necessarily to a one-to-one retelling of the same plague.
The phrase "for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year" shows precise appointed timing. Revelation repeatedly marks time carefully, so its time markers should not be flattened into vague symbolism where the text presents them with this level of specificity.
Re 9:15, Re 9:18
ESV, "The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number." The ESV renders the phrase idiomatically ("twice ten thousand times ten thousand"), preserving the apocalyptic numeric form of δισ μυριαδες μυριαδων. However, the added clause "I heard their number" (ηκουσα τον αριθμον αυτων) indicates an explicitly enumerated total, not a vague expression of magnitude. This supports the KJV's inference of a precise count, even while the Greek presents that count in a stylized, idiomatic form.
The KJV/TR joins the clauses with καί — "and I heard"; the critical text reads ἤκουσα τὸν ἀριθμὸν αὐτῶν — "I heard the number of them" — without it.
Re 9:16, Joel 2:11 — Not the army of Joel 2:11; it is the army of the LORD, not the four angels: "The LORD utters his voice before his army." Joel 2:11 better fits 19:14.
Re 6:1, Re 9:7, Re 9:16, Re 19:11 — Horse imagery in Revelation is repeatedly connected with judgment and war: the first four seals bring conquest, sword, famine, and death through horsemen (Rev. 6:1–8); the fifth trumpet describes the locusts as “like horses prepared for battle” (Rev. 9:7); the sixth trumpet involves a vast mounted army (Rev. 9:16–19); and Christ returns on a white horse as the One who “judges and wages war” in righteousness (Rev. 19:11). This pattern shows that, within Revelation itself, horses function as a recurring image of war-like judgment and large-scale conflict.
In the TR/KJV the word "plagues" (πληγή) does not appear here, but it is present in the TR at 9:20.
Re 9:15, Re 9:18
Re 9:20, Re 14:13, Re 18:6, Re 20:12-13, Re 22:12 — The "works" mentioned in 9:20, 14:13, 18:6, 20:12-13, and 22:12 seem related to those of the seven churches in 2:2, 2:9, 2:13, 2:19, 3:1, 3:8, and 3:15.
Important Note: The critical text seems to have preserved the text better here. The star is already "fallen"; this positions it as likely an angel that fell prior to this moment, or as the Wormwood star. Let's explore those two options, but note that stars in Revelation can be literal stars, humans (women, 12 stars in Revelation 12), and heavenly bodies such as Satan and his angels.
Option 1: Wormwood — Literal stars are very unlikely to be given keys to the bottomless pit — the bottomless pit is connected to spiritual beings. Unless the Wormwood star is an angel, then it seems unlikely that the star here is that star.
Option 2: Fallen Angel — This seems more likely, given the bottomless pit's spiritual nature.
Is this fallen star Wormwood, or a fallen angel? Or maybe it is both? I'll let you consider it. But who the angel is will not be the point. The main focus of the 5th trumpet is the locusts.
When the locusts come out of the bottomless pit, it is also fitting that they be demonic, as they seem to come from a supernatural place. Yet it should not be ignored that the locusts are linked to the material world by their ability to sting men. So, the spiritual and material worlds meet at the 5th trumpet and the first woe.
These locusts plague the earth for five months and only touch "those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads." This implies the 144,000 are present at this time.
Revelation 9 distinguishes the locusts with two types of identifiers: direct statements and comparative descriptions. Some details are stated directly: the locusts come out of the smoke, receive power, are restricted from harming vegetation, target men without the seal of God, are not permitted to kill, torment for five months, have a king, and are ruled by the angel of the abyss named Abaddon/Apollyon. Other details are given through comparison: their appearance is like horses prepared for battle, their crowns are like gold, their faces are like men’s faces, their hair is like women’s hair, their teeth are like lions’ teeth, their breastplates are like iron, their wings sound like chariots and many horses rushing to battle, and their tails are like scorpions. This matters because the comparisons describe what the creatures resemble, while the direct statements define their origin, limits, target, duration, and ruler.