1 AND the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 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.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20 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:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

1And the fift Angel sounded, and I saw a starre fall from heauen vnto the earth: and to him was giuen the key of the bottomlesse pitte.

2And hee opened the bottomelesse pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great fornace, and the sunne and the ayre were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3And there came out of the smoke locusts vpon the earth, and vnto them was giuen power, as the Scorpions of the earth haue power.

4And it was commaunded them that they should not hurt the grasse of the earth, neither any greene thing, neither any tree: but only those men which haue not the seale of God in their foreheads.

5And to them it was giuen that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented fiue moneths, and their torment was as the torment of a Scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6And in those daies shal men seeke death, and shall not finde it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

7And the shapes of the Locusts were like vnto horses prepared vnto battell, and on their heades were as it were crownes like golde, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8And they had haire as the haire of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of Lions.

9And they had brestplates, as it were brestplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of charets of many horses running to battell.

10And they had tayles like vnto Scorpions, and there were stings in their tayles: and their power was to hurt men fiue moneths.

11And they had a king ouer them, which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greeke tongue hath his name Apollyon.

12One woe is past, and behold there come two woes more hereafter.

13And the sixt Angel sounded, and I heard a voyce from the foure hornes of þe golden altar, which is before God,

14Saying to the sixt Angel which had the trumpet, Loose the foure Angels which are bound in the great riuer Euphrates.

15And the foure Angels were loosed, which were prepared for an houre, and a day, and a moneth, and a yeere, for to slay the third part of men.

16And the number of the armie of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17And thus I sawe the horses in the vision, and them that sate on them, hauing brest-plates of fire and of Iacinct, and brimstone, & the heades of the horses were as the heads of Lions, and out of their mouthes issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone.

18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouthes.

19For their power is in their mouth, and in their tailes: for their tailes were like vnto serpents, and had heads, and with them they doe hurt.

20And 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 deuils, and idoles of golde, and siluer, and brasse, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor heare, nor walke:

21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

 

1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. It was given the key for the passage to the abyss. 2 It opened the passage to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage. 3 Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or any tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torment them for five months; the torment they inflicted was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 During that time these people will seek death but will not find it, and they will long to die but death will escape them. 7 The appearance of the locusts was like that of horses ready for battle. On their heads they wore what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 and they had hair like women's hair. Their teeth were like lions' teeth, 9 and they had chests like iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots racing into battle. 10 They had tails like scorpions, with stingers; with their tails they had power to harm people for five months. 11 They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddonand in Greek Apollyon. 12 The first woe has passed, but there are two more to come. 13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the [four] horns of the gold altar before God, 14 telling the sixth angel who held the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the banks of the great river Euphrates." 15 So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month, and year to kill a third of the human race. 16 The number of cavalry troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. 17 Now in my vision this is how I saw the horses and their riders. They wore red, blue, and yellow breastplates, and the horses' heads were like heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 By these three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that came out of their mouths a third of the human race was killed. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like snakes, with heads that inflict harm. 20 The rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies.

The first four trumpet judgments were directed toward the physical world and only affected men indirectly. The next judgments are upon man, and involve Satan and his host of fallen angels, who were created on the first day of creation along with the other angels. Satan was the chosen cherub of God, but he wanted to be above other angels and be like God, Isa. 14:13. A third of the angels sided with Satan, and he was banished to the earth, Ezek. 28:17. He could have been cast into outer space, but God allowed him to test man, to see if man would follow him or God. Of course Adam and Eve fell, but God promised that Satan would eventually be crushed, and God provided a means of sacrifice for sin. The demon possessed men of the world perished in the flood and those demons were removed and reserved for judgment. Satan has continued to try to deceive and exercise power over men. Here he will be unleashing his wrath upon man.
John’s descriptions of visions are accurately recorded but can not be adequately described by the limitations of human language and time frame.  We can know they are just comparisons if he uses “like, as, as it were”. To illustrate, our youth class composed how the people of John’s day might have described a steam engine coming down a railroad track: “A huge beast with the speed and noise as of a herd of buffaloes. One eye as bright as the sun and it cast it’s light before it day and night. It’s voice was louder than a lion that roareth over it’s prey, and black smoke issued from it’s nostril. It clung to a trail as of solid rock, moving not to the right or left away from it.”

v  1. Fifth trumpet. Satan is the star literally fallen from heaven from the day he sinned, Ezek. 28:15. (1) In Isa. 14:12 and perhaps Luke 10:18 he fell from his position of excellency. (2) He has some degree of access to the heavens as an accuser as seen in Job 1 and 2 and Rev. 12:9. (3) When Christ ascended he was judicially cast out, that is he is sentenced to death, but the execution does not take place until after the Millennium and the final battle. In spite of all the power he wields, we need to remember, Satan is a defeated foe. See  the threefold overcomers notes on 12:11. (4) At Rev. 12:9 He is finally cast to earth, being defeated from the heavenly area of angels, which would not necessarily deprive him of being the prince of the power of the air.  Christ has the keys of death and hades, Rev. 1:18, but as he gave Satan limited power over Job, he now gives him limited authority  to open the pit and release these terrible demons on the earth. Satan is angry that so many men have turned to God, so now, in his wrath, he and his demons are allowed to torment men. The keys are retrieved from Satan at some point before a different angel takes them and binds Satan there in Rev. 20:1. “Keys” is less confusing if we think of them in terms of “Authority”. Not necessarily a transfer of the key, but a withholding of the authority that was given him temporarily.

v 2. To be bottomless, this pit would be in the center of the earth. It is only to this, of the various compartments of Hades, that Satan is given the key. Great billows of smoke from the earths internal heat and pressure will darken the world.

v3. Smoke like a furnace as at Sodom and Gomorra would be frightening enough, without the demons described in 7-10 as locusts having animal like  characteristics. Demons are spirit but like to take on the form of something, as those that entered into the 2000 swine at Gadara or as Satan as a serpent to Eve. These demon creatures desire to destroy men before Christ can save them.

v 4. Normal locusts destroy plant life, but these are commanded from God to hurt only the men God has not sealed in the forehead. This would be the 144,000, but no unbelievers.

v 5. They were not to kill but to torment excruciatingly for a limit of five months. Some of this torture may have been actual demon possession.

v 6. Those tormented will want to die but can not even commit suicide. Fear of these demons will drive people from Christ.

v 7-10. Joel’s prediction of locusts, Joel 2:2, 4 may have also had a far fulfillment in these demonic creatures. Unable to put their description in terms that could be understood, John uses, “like, as, as it were”. He gave these locusts an eight point overall description: Horses going to battle, crowns like gold,  as men’s faces, as women’s hair,  as breastplates of iron, as lions teeth, wings sounding like chariots going to battle, and like scorpion, their tails inflicted pain. Again we note the limitation God places upon  them.

v 11. Unlike real locusts, these fallen angels have a king. His names, Abaddon, or Apollyon, are both Greek names for destroyer. This we know normally refers to Satan, but here it is possibly one of Satan’s chief demons, not Satan himself. He is chief over all the fallen groups.

v 12  Men on earth may hear and see the flying angels from God. There was little relief as the flying angel announced to any who could hear, that one woe was past, but two more were to come. The second woe is the sixth trumpet. which is sounded.

v 13. Sixth trumpet. In the OT, persons clung to the horns of the altar for mercy, but now an angel, or probably the Lamb, speaks forth from the altar in judgment.

v 14. His voice, commands the sixth angel to loose the four demonic angels from where they have been bound in the Euphrates. They are in charge of 200 million demons. We don’t know when they were bound, but surely in some connection to this wicked place. This is where Satan’s seat was, the center of idolatry corrupting the world clear into the Church Age.  
The garden of Eden was watered from springs, and this fountain of the deep was broken up by Noah’s flood, so the present Euphrates is not the original. Perhaps that one is where they are somehow bound. The Euphrates is important as the area of the Garden of Eden, the first murder, Nimrod’s religion with the resultant confusion of languages at the tower of Babel, the call of Abraham, Queen Esther’s supplication for Jews, and the place of Daniel and friends in Israel’s 70 year captivity.

v 15.  The demonic locusts have been prepared and reserved for this particular moment. The previous plague lasted 5 months and men could not die. These will torment 13 months, and a third of the people will be killed. With those of the fourth seal, deaths now total half the population.

v 16,17. These 200 million are not horsemen as we know them. They were specially created by God for this time, and were possessed by the demons  when they came out of the Euphrates. The bodies of the riders merge into the bodies that are like horses. The  riders have armor of fire, jacinth and brimstone, and their heads are like lions. They breath out fire smoke and brimstone, possibly involving sulfur. John saw these creatures so they are not figurative but real, like fire breathing dinosaurs of past. (We will see God’s supernatural army in Rev. 19.

v 18,19. The likeness to tanks with machine guns and flame throwers causes some to speculate this is a huge army of Kings of the East from the Orient crossing the Euphrates to do battle in the holy land as in Rev. 16:12. However that is for the battle of Armageddon, whereas this is earlier. These are fearsome and deadly. It is not said if the demons are returned to the Euphrates. Henry M Morris speculates they may  finally be killed by military etc.

v 20. These things should cause people to turn to God, but If men finally repelled them, they trust in their own strength and do not repent, but they go into extreme idolatry.

v 21. Those who understood the gospel but rejected it before the Rapture are given a strong delusion to believe a lie, 2 Thess. 2:10,11, and continue in their corruptions. Sorceries is Greek “pharmakia”, or our word Pharmacy. It was originally the mixing of drugs and poisons used by magicians. This would indicate that wide scale use of drugs will increase in the Tribulation, along with stealing, murder, and illicit sex.