Revelation Chapter Nine Breakdown

1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

Another angel falls from heaven. This angel is given the key to the bottomless pit. Remember, Yeshua had this key from chapter one. Many believe this angel to be Satan.

2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

The fallen angel opens the bottomless pit. The smoke from the pit blocks out the sun and turns the air black.

3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

The smoke brings about locust with power like scorpions. This means they sting and can cause death. This could be men carrying guns. Now the pit and locust have been mentioned repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. Let’s take a look.

The Pit

Ezekiel 26:19-20 (To the people of Tyre)

“For thus says the Lord God: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you, and great waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 28: 8 (To the king of Tyre)

They shall throw you down into the Pit, And you shall die the death of the slain In the midst of the seas.

Ezekiel 32:18 (To Egypt)

“Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, And cast them down to the depths of the earth, Her and the daughters of the famous nations, With those who go down to the Pit:

Ezekiel 32:22-23 (Assyria)

“Assyria is there, and all her company, With their graves all around her, All of them slain, fallen by the sword. Her graves are set in the recesses of the Pit, And her company is all around her grave, All of them slain, fallen by the sword, Who caused terror in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 32:24 (Elam)

“There is Elam and all her multitude, All around her grave, All of them slain, fallen by the sword, Who have gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, Who caused their terror in the land of the living; Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

Ezekiel 32:26 (Meshech and Tubal)

“There are Meshech and Tubal and all their multitudes, With all their graves around it, All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, Though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 32: 29 (Edom)

“There is Edom, Her kings and all her princes, Who despite their might Are laid beside those slain by the sword; They shall lie with the uncircumcised, And with those who go down to the Pit.

As you can see here, all these countries have been thrown down into the Pit, this is likely the bottomless pit we see in Revelation.

The Locust

Joel 2: 1- 11

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations.

A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate desert; Surely nothing shall escape them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array. Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks. They do not push one another; Every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down. They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?

Joel 2: 25

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

Judges 6: 1, 5

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of YHWH, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.

Judges 7: 12

Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

Jeremiah 51: 14, 27

The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they shall lift up a shout against you.”

Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

As you can see, great armies of certain people groups are referred to as locust many times over. It just so happens, that many of the countries thrown into the pit are the same people as those who are referred to as locust. The interesting thing that I notice here, and it even links all the way back to the first couple chapters is the fact all these people make up the Islamic countries in our world today. This can be linked with the oil and wine spoken about in chapter six, as well as the denarius considering it is the currency of Iraq and Iraq is an Islamic country. It is my understanding these locust will be an Islamic army. There will be many more direct links to Islam as we get deeper into the revelation of Yeshua. I do understand Islam as the antichrist is not a popular viewpoint and I did not really believe it at first myself. However, the more I study prophecy, I really see no one else to fit so perfectly as does Islam.

4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

The locust were commanded not to harm the living things, but only the men who were not sealed by God. I find this quite interesting because these locust are not sent to hurt God’s chosen people, but rather everyone else. This lines up with Joel two army. YHWH uses these Islamic army for a form of His wrath. We will see more similarities between Joel and the locust army in a few verses.

5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

These locust are to torture these men, but not kill them.

6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Because of all this torture, men will wish to die, but will not be allowed to die. Death flees them because they are not permitted to die during their torture. “Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color.”(Joel 2)

7 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

Now we see the locust are like horses ready for battle. Joel 2 says the same thing. These locust who look like horses is the Joel 2 army. “Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.”(Joel 2)

8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

This army has long hair like women. The teeth like a lions’ teeth could be literal or symbolism.

9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.

They are dressed for war. “With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array.” (Joel 2) Considering they are going to war, I would say they have tanks and helicopters, neither of which were invented when Joel and John wrote these prophecies. This would easily explain the sounds being heard and the ability to leap mountains. 

10 They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

Their tails like scorpions could also be described by a helicopter with attached guns.

11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

Their king was the fallen angel who had the keys to the bottomless pit. This is the Antichrist who leads this army.

12 One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

These locust are only the first woe the angel proclaimed would come.

13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

At the sixth trumpet, four angels are released. These angels had been bound under the Euphrates River. I believe John is referring to Genesis six and what Jude said.

Genesis 6:4

There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Jude 1:6

 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day

Angels in a fallen state procreated with human women and were punished by being bound until the 

Day of the Lord.

15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.

These angels came out and killed one third of all men. So, we see here men were still able to die, meaning their DNA had not been changed to be immortal. I did buy into the immortality thing for a while, but I’m not so sure it works any more.

16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

There are 200,000,000 soldiers in this army.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

The soldiers wore red, blue, and yellow body armor. These horses may be tanks, trucks, or some other type of vehicle considering fire and smoke protrudes from out of them with the smell of sulfur. We know today some vehicles smell like sulfur and they all have smoke coming from the exhaust. Simply adding machine guns on them and you would see fire as well.

18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.

One third of all mankind has been killed so we know John is now five months in the future of the last trumpet.

19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

The power of these horses come from tails and mouths, basically the front and rear. If we consider this to be a tank, tanks have long barrels similar to the body of a snake, with a “head” on the end of the barrel which shoots fire and causes harm.

20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

Even still, after this war had been going on and so many men have lost their lives, men of the world still refused to repent of their sin. Men continued to worship false idols and demons.

21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Men continued to murder, be sexually immoral, work witchcraft, and steal even after the sixth trumpet.