Commentators on the Second Woe

J. Ramsey Michaels, Revelation (IVP New Testament Commentary)

The Sixth Trumpet, or Second Woe

Revelation 9:13

The sixth trumpet, like the sixth seal (6:12--7:17), is much longer than the other members of the series. The difference in length is again commonly explained by assuming an interruption, or interlude, in the series (this time consisting of 10:1--11:13). There are two reasons for this: (1) John participates in the action in chapter 10, rather than just observing it; (2) if the trumpets represent an actual sequence of events that will take place before the end of the world, it is hard to imagine chapter 10 as part of that sequence. Will John return to earth someday, take and eat a scroll from the hand of a gigantic angel, as he does in that chapter? Probably not. It is easier to suppose that the time sequence has been interrupted, that we are now suddenly back in John's own time, and that John is experiencing a renewal of the prophetic call he received in chapter 1, in preparation for greater terrors to come.

These would be perfectly valid points if the trumpet series were a literal recital of events to happen on earth, in just that order. But it is not. Rather, it is a literal recital of what John saw. The series points to the terrible reality of God's judgment on the world. But that judgment (whenever and however it may come) will not simply be a rerun of John's visions. When chapters 9-10 are viewed as accounts of John's visionary experiences on the island of Patmos in the late first century, there is no need to suppose any kind of break or interruption between them. Even within the so-called interlude, John is explicitly reminded that the trumpet sequence is still going on (10:6-7). Just as chapter 7 belongs to the sixth seal, so 10:1--11:13 should be read as part of the sixth trumpet, not as a time-out or an intermission standing outside the series. The sixth trumpet, therefore, includes not only the judgment proper (9:13-19) but also considerable material bearing on the human response to this judgment and the preceding ones (9:20--11:13).

The Opening from the East

Revelation 9:13-16

The judgment proper falls into the same two parts as the judgment just described under the fifth trumpet: (1) an opening or a "release" of demonic invaders against the earth and its inhabitants (vv. 13-16); (2) a detailed--and frightening--description of these invaders (vv. 17-19). The locusts of the previous vision were loosed from "the Abyss" by a fallen star (vv. 1-3), while in the present vision four angels are loosed from their place of restraint at the great river Euphrates (v. 14), far to the east of Patmos and Asia Minor. If the first invasion seemed to come from the pit of hell, the second is from "outside," from beyond the eastern borders of the Roman Empire. People in many cultures (including our own) have at times feared and hated the unknown or little-known peoples in distant lands. The Romans feared the Parthians beyond the Euphrates as a barbarian horde ready to sack the empire at the slightest sign of weakness. Some Americans from time to time have feared what they called the "yellow peril," whether from the Japanese in World War II, or from communist China and Korea in the Cold War, or Japan with its economic competition today. Those of a more imaginative bent fear aliens from outer space. The imagery of the sixth trumpet evokes just such cultural anxieties--and more.

The structure of the scene, in which one angel (the one blowing the trumpet) releases four terrible angels to kill a third of mankind (v. 15), evokes the earlier vision in which one angel cautioned four others not to send destructive winds over the earth "until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God" (7:1-3). In both instances the prospect is of judgment from the east (compare 7:2), and in both instances John hears a momentous number announced: 144,000 in chapter 7, promising hope and protection, and two hundred million here (v. 16), threatening death and destruction. The angels in this vision, kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year (v. 15) are suddenly transformed into a mounted army of staggering proportions, literally "two myriads of myriads" or twice ten thousand times ten thousand. The abrupt shift presupposes that the four angels are in charge of these demonic cavalry in much the same way that the four angels of 7:1-3 were in charge of the four winds. But instead of holding them back, they now release them to wreak havoc on the earth.

Description of the Horses

Revelation 9:17-19

John's account of the origin of the invaders is followed by a vivid description of them (just as for the locusts). The description only heightens our sense of terror as we move from the fifth trumpet to the sixth. The horses John sees are not simply a means of transportation for human soldiers. Horses and riders are described together as one complex and terrible creature, like the centaur of Greek mythology. They are not human but demonic, and their job is to carry out the commission of the four angels from the Euphrates to kill a third of mankind (v. 15; compare v. 18).

While the locusts in the preceding vision had "tails and stings like scorpions" (v. 10), these horses had tails like snakes (v. 19) with similar power to injure (again, see Jesus' promise of authority over both "snakes and scorpions" in Lk 10:19). Even worse, out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur, viewed as three distinct plagues bringing death to one-third of the human race (vv. 17-18). If the first four trumpets brought "fire" on the earth (8:7, 8, 10), and the fifth, "smoke from the Abyss" (9:2), the sixth adds sulfur to the conflagration. These three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur (v. 18) will become basic elements in John's subsequent visions of eternal punishment (compare 14:10-11; 18:9, 18; 19:3, 20; 20:10; 21:8). "Sulfur" in the King James Version becomes "brimstone," creating the expression "fire and brimstone" for preaching based on the fear of hell.