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The Fifth Trumpet
This vision of the fifth trumpet shows smoke rising from the abyss and locust-like attackers bringing painful torment. The passage uses vivid comparisons and repeated limits to show a woe that is severe, controlled, and not the last one.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
The passage begins when the fifth angel sounds. The vision then follows a clear order: a fallen star is given a key, the abyss is opened, smoke spreads, locusts come out, their power and limits are stated, their appearance is described, and the first woe is counted complete.
Revelation 9:1–12Main takeaway
This passage presents the fifth trumpet as a fearful woe in which harm is intense yet carefully limited by what is given and commanded.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A key opens the abyssAfter the fifth angel sounds, a star that had fallen to the earth is seen, and the key to the pit of the abyss is given to him.
Explanation
After the fifth angel sounds, a star that had fallen to the earth is seen, and the key to the pit of the abyss is given to him. When he opens it, smoke rises like a furnace and darkens the sun and air. The vision begins with opening, smoke, and spreading darkness.
02The locusts have a specific targetLocusts come out of the smoke with power like scorpions. Yet they are not allowed to harm grass, green things, or trees.
Explanation
Locusts come out of the smoke with power like scorpions. Yet they are not allowed to harm grass, green things, or trees. Instead, they are directed only toward people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. Their action is powerful, but it is also restricted.
03Their torment is severe but temporaryThe locusts are given power to torment for five months, but not to kill. Their torment is compared to a scorpion’s sting.
Explanation
The locusts are given power to torment for five months, but not to kill. Their torment is compared to a scorpion’s sting. The suffering is described as so great that people seek death without finding it. The passage stresses both the pain involved and the limit placed on it.
04Their appearance and ruler mark this as a visionThe locusts are described through comparisons: like horses prepared for war, with something like crowns, faces like people, hair like women’s hair, teeth like lions, iron breastplates, loud wings, and scorpion-like tails.
Explanation
The locusts are described through comparisons: like horses prepared for war, with something like crowns, faces like people, hair like women’s hair, teeth like lions, iron breastplates, loud wings, and scorpion-like tails. They also have a king, the angel of the abyss, named Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.
05This is only the first woeThe passage ends by naming what has just been seen: the first woe is past, yet two more woes are still coming after it.
Explanation
The passage ends by naming what has just been seen: the first woe is past, yet two more woes are still coming after it. That final statement places this vision within an ongoing sequence after the fifth angel sounded and prepares the reader for further trumpet-related judgement scenes.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What details show that the locusts do not act without limits?
Notice what they were told not to harm, who they could harm, that they could torment but not kill, and the fixed period of five months.
02Which repeated comparison words help you read this as visionary description?
Look for phrases such as like and something like in the smoke, sting, and body descriptions.
03How does the final verse help place this scene within the trumpet sequence?
Compare the opening note that the fifth angel sounded with the closing statement that the first woe is past and two more are coming.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Revelation 9:1–12
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.