Revelation 9:13–21

9:13 The sixth angel sounds his trumpet, and the contents of this judgment represent the second woe (cf. 8:13; 9:12). The trumpet judgments are from a censer of incense hurled from the altar of incense onto the earth (8:1–5), and John hears a voice from the four horns on the altar of incense (Ex. 27:2; 30:2–3). Horns on altars don’t typically speak, but this is apocalyptic literature! Perhaps the voice represents an angel speaking. The connection with the altar reminds us that the judgments are an answer to the prayers of the saints (Rev. 8:3–4).

9:14 The voice from the altar instructs the (good) angel with the sixth trumpet to release the four angels being detained at the Euphrates River. Earlier, four angels were restraining the winds of judgment from being unleashed on the earth (7:1). Here the bound angels are probably demons, since the language of binding is used elsewhere of Satan (Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27; Rev. 20:2); they cannot be the same angels described in 7:1, as the location is different. The Euphrates River comes into the picture again with this judgment (Rev. 16:12). In the OT, the Euphrates’ headwaters were in the land of Eden (Gen. 2:14), and the river was the border of the land promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:18; cf. Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4) and possessed finally by Solomon (1 Kings 4:21, 24). The enemies of God and his people, however, were on the far side of the Euphrates. John is also perhaps alluding to the Parthians, enemies of Rome who invaded from the east in 53 BC and AD 62. So here, too, wicked forces are unleashed from the Euphrates.

9:15 The four angels bound at the Euphrates are released to kill a third of humanity. The Euphrates was the boundary between the Roman and Parthian Empires, and thus the Parthian enemies would have come over the Euphrates (cf. 1 En. 56:6–57:3). “Released” (elythēsan) suggests they are demons, as Satan is also “released” (lyō; Rev. 20:3, 7) by God. Good angels aren’t “released” but are commissioned or sent, whereas demons are restrained by God but sometimes released and permitted by him to undertake specific activities. The reference to the hour, day, month, and year probably does not mean the punishment took place on a specific day. It refers to the era in which this punishment took place, and John probably has in mind the entire period between Christ’s resurrection and second coming. Others place this punishment in a final seven-year tribulation period, but, as we have seen, there is no warrant in Scripture for a seven-year period of tribulation (cf. comment on 7:13–14). The slaying of a third of human beings does not represent a literal number but means the attacks led to the death of a great number of people. We see the same emphasis on one-third in previous trumpet judgments (8:7–12). The death inflicted by demons uses ordinary means, such as disease and pestilence (cf. 6:3–8), and so what John records here fits with the seal judgments, overlapping them temporally. At the same time, it seems the trumpets represent an intensification of what we see in the seal judgments. In the fifth trumpet (9:1–12), we see unbelievers longing to die because of their misery. The sixth trumpet and the second woe (9:13–21) show people dying because of demonic activity. This demonic activity is not visible to us, of course, since demons use ordinary means to accomplish their purposes. In particular, demons use false teaching to deceive and advance their purposes (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1–5), and hence it is possible the death described here refers to both spiritual and physical death. Ultimately, the spiritually dead also die physically and eternally. They experience what Revelation calls the “second death” (Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8).

9:16 John hears the number of the demonic army, a staggering 200 million. Earlier we noted that John heard the number of the 144,000 (7:4). The number isn’t literal, of course, but designates an incalculable army. In any case, John isn’t talking about a human army, for the release of the four demonic angels (cf. 9:14–15) unleashes an incomprehensibly evil demonic horde.

9:17 The horses and their riders constitute a massive army. The riders have breastplates of fire, sapphire, and sulfur, but the horses are truly “out of this world,” for their heads are like lions, and fire, smoke, and sulfur belch from their mouths. John is not describing modern weaponry, nor does he depict literal horses. His point is that this army is no ordinary army; it isn’t a human army at all. He uses symbolic language to describe a demonic horde inflicting death on human beings, and the death in view is fundamentally spiritual death—separation from God, leading to physical and eternal death.

9:18 The fire, smoke, and sulfur coming from the horses’ mouths represent three plagues. The number three is symbolic, and thus the plagues refer to every kind of disease, virus, and pestilence that kills human beings. Satanic teachings are probably also in view. The plagues poured out on unbelieving Egypt foreshadow the judgments recorded here.

9:19 These horses are nothing like horses in this world, for the power to injure people is in their mouths and tails. Their tails are like serpents, signaling demonic power at work. The language is apocalyptic and symbolic. John is not anticipating modern weaponry. Instead, he teaches that the plagues come from demonic powers. Demons destroy human beings, especially through false teaching that separates unbelievers from God.

9:20 The judgments meted out on human beings are intended to provoke other unbelievers (“the rest” are non-Christians) to repent (cf. 16:9, 11). In this sense, the judgments have a redemptive purpose. Unfortunately, those who were not killed by these plagues do not repent. John is not intending to make a universal statement here, as if no unbeliever ever repents upon seeing God’s judgment on others. The hyperbolic nature of the statement is typical of apocalyptic literature. Another way of stating John’s point here is that, in general, those who remain unbelievers are stubborn and do not turn to God even when they see depictions of the coming judgment.

The reason for the failure to repent is elaborated further. People do not want to turn from “the works of their hands.” Repentance means to confess that what one has done is evil. But humans do not repent because they are too proud to admit that what they have done is wrong.

The reason men do not repent is pursued further. It is a matter of worship and affections. Humans grow attached to demons (Deut. 32:17; Ps. 96:5; 1 Cor. 10:20) and idols (cf. Jer. 1:16; Dan. 5:4, 23). The attachment to idols is foolish and futile, showing how disordered our affections are, for idols cannot see, hear, or walk (cf. Pss. 115:4–7; 135:15–17). What John writes here is deeply informed by the OT. Isaiah says concerning Israel, “Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made” (Isa. 2:8). In other words, idols can’t deliver what we long for them to provide, and yet unbelievers, because of spiritual blindness, fail to see this (cf. Isa. 2:20), whereas those who do repent perceive that idols cannot deliver what they promise (Isa. 17:8).

9:21 Verse 21 zeros in on various sins requiring repentance, specifically murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft (cf. Gal. 5:20; Rev. 21:8; 22:15). It is striking that all of these sins are forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Sorcery relies on another god besides the Lord (cf. 2 Kings 9:22; Nah. 3:4), thereby taking his name in vain (cf. Ex. 20:3, 7). Murder and stealing reveal how human beings secure their well-being through their own machinations, while sexual immorality pursues pleasure on our terms instead of through adherence to God’s standards.