Chapter Text
The Fifth Trumpet
The Sixth Trumpet
Summary
The fifth trumpet sounds, opening the bottomless pit. Smoke darkens the sun, and demonic locusts emerge with power to torment — but not kill — those without God's seal for five months. Their king is Apollyon, the Destroyer. The sixth trumpet releases four angels bound at the Euphrates, who command an army of two hundred million horsemen. A third of humanity is killed by fire, smoke, and brimstone. Yet the survivors refuse to repent of their idolatry, murders, sorcery, sexual immorality, or theft.
Meaning
The escalation from the first four trumpets to the fifth and sixth reveals increasingly severe divine judgments. The locusts from the abyss represent demonic forces unleashed upon those who have rejected God's protection. Their torment is limited in duration and scope, demonstrating that even in judgment God exercises measured control.
The most tragic element of this chapter is the refusal to repent despite overwhelming evidence of divine power. The human heart's capacity for stubbornness in the face of God's warnings is staggering. Even when a third of humanity perishes, the survivors cling to their idols and their sins, confirming the hardness that only divine grace can penetrate.
Background
The locust imagery recalls the plague of locusts in Exodus and Joel's prophecy of a devastating locust invasion as a precursor to the Day of the Lord. The Euphrates River marked the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire and was associated with feared invasions from Parthian armies. The number two hundred million was unimaginably large for ancient readers, emphasizing the overwhelming nature of this judgment.
Chapter Outline
- vv. 1-2The Fifth Trumpet and the Abyss Opened
- vv. 3-6Demonic Locusts Torment the Unsealed
- vv. 7-11The Locusts Described and Their King
- vv. 12The First Woe Past
- vv. 13-15The Sixth Trumpet and the Euphrates Angels
- vv. 16-19The Army of Horsemen and Their Plagues
- vv. 20-21The Refusal to Repent
Key Verses
“And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”— 9:6
A haunting depiction of judgment so severe that death itself becomes a coveted escape, frequently cited in discussions of divine wrath and the terror of unrepentance.
“And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”— 9:11
Introduces the only named demonic ruler in Revelation, whose Hebrew and Greek names both mean 'Destroyer'—a key text in apocalyptic demonology.
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:”— 9:20
A sobering theological statement that judgment alone does not produce repentance, echoing the hardness of Pharaoh and revealing the depth of human rebellion.
People & Places
People
- Abaddon / Apollyon — The angel-king of the bottomless pit whose name means 'Destroyer,' ruling the demonic locust army.
Places
- The bottomless pit — The abyss from which demonic torment is unleashed, depicted as a smoking furnace prison.
- River Euphrates — The great eastern river where four destroying angels are bound until the appointed hour of judgment.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
This chapter unfolds the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments, advancing the apocalyptic visions foretold by the prophets of woe upon the earth. The locust imagery deliberately echoes Joel 1–2, where a locust army prefigures the Day of the Lord, now intensified into demonic torment. The sealing of God's servants in 9:4 fulfills the protective marking promised in Revelation 7, while verses 20–21 anticipate the final hardening described in later chapters, showing prophecy moving toward its consummation.
Devotional
Revelation 9 confronts us with a difficult truth: suffering does not automatically soften the heart. Even under devastating judgment, the unrepentant cling to idols of their own making—gold, silver, and the works of their hands.
It is a mirror worth holding up. What do we reach for when life shakes us? Do trials drive us toward God, or deeper into the things we already trust too much? The chapter calls us to examine our attachments now, in quieter days, and to choose repentance before circumstances force the question.
Literary Style
Apocalyptic prophecy in vivid symbolic vision, marked by numbered sequences, hybrid creature imagery, and bilingual wordplay (Abaddon/Apollyon). The chapter employs catalogues of description, repetition of 'the third part,' and a sobering prophetic indictment in its closing verses.