Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Revelation 9

Revelation 9 depicts terrifying judgments under fixed limits and ends with humanity’s refusal to turn from idolatry and evil.

John sees the fifth and sixth angels sound their trumpets, bringing two scenes of judgment. A fallen star receives a key to the abyss, and locust-like creatures emerge to torment people who lack God’s seal. Their power has strict limits. Then four angels bound at the Euphrates are released, and a vast mounted army kills a third of mankind. The survivors continue worshiping idols and refuse to repent of their deeds.

sermon or Bible study notesfear for the future
Read
1The 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.
2He 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.
3Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4They 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.
5They 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.
6In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
7The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces.
8They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.
9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots and horses rushing to war.
10They have tails like those of scorpions, with stingers. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.
11They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.
12The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.
13The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”
15The 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.
16The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.
17Thus I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur.
18By these three plagues, one third of mankind was killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths.
19For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads; and with them they harm.
20The 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.
21They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Revelation 9:20The survivors’ refusal to repent brings the chapter’s focus from terrifying plagues to persistent allegiance to demons and lifeless idols.
Revelation 9:4God’s seal distinguishes those the locusts cannot harm, showing that these destructive creatures operate within imposed boundaries.
Revelation 9:1The fallen star receives the abyss’s key, introducing the release of destructive powers whose access depends on granted authority.
Where this chapter reaches

Exodus shares the imagery of locusts and darkness, while Joel also depicts locusts with the appearance of horses and the sound of chariots. Ezekiel shares the marking of people spared from judgment, and Jeremiah shares the exposure of idols as objects unable to act.

Revelation 9's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do the limits placed on the locusts suggest about God’s rule amid this destruction?

Write on this

How does the survivors’ refusal to repent shape your reading of the judgments?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Revelation 9

Who is the fallen star in Revelation 9?

The star is treated as a personal agent: he receives a key and opens the abyss. The chapter does not name him or explain when he fell. Some readers identify him with Satan or another angelic being, but the text leaves his precise identity unstated.

What are the locusts in Revelation 9?

These creatures emerge from the abyss and combine features of locusts, warhorses, humans, lions, and scorpions. They torment people for five months and have the angel of the abyss as king. The imagery portrays supernatural destructive forces; the chapter does not identify them with a particular modern army or weapon.

Why do people refuse to repent in Revelation 9?

The chapter reports their refusal without explaining their inner reasoning. Those who survive continue worshiping demons and idols, and persist in murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft. This ending shows that even devastating judgment does not, by itself, bring the survivors to abandon their worship or deeds.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Revelation 9. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Revelation · 22 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122
What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).