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Context No. 663 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 9:7-11: in context

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”.

Revelation is John's vision of the end, and this is the fifth of seven trumpets. A star falls to earth and is given the key to the abyss, and out of the smoke come locusts. They are not the insects that strip a field. They are told not to touch the grass, and given instead the power to sting people, and only those who do not bear God's seal, and only to torment them, not to kill, for five months.

Then John describes them, and the description is a nightmare assembled from parts. They look like horses armored for battle, with something like gold crowns and human faces, hair like a woman's and teeth like a lion's, iron breastplates, wings that roar like chariots, and scorpions' tails that carry the sting. Over them is a king, the angel of the abyss, and John gives his name twice so it cannot be missed: Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek, the Destroyer. The vision borrows its swarm from Joel's army of locusts, but adds the one thing Joel did not, a name on the thing that ruins.

John will not let the destroyer stay nameless; he prints it in two languages. What torment in my own life have I refused to name plainly, and so left free to work?

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