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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 9

1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace. The sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft.⁠ 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.⁠ 4 They were told not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead.⁠ 5 The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.⁠ 7 Now the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, and their faces looked like men’s faces.⁠ 8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 10 They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.⁠ 12 The first woe has passed, but two woes are still coming after these things! 13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel, the one holding the trumpet, “Set free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”⁠ 15 Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year were set free to kill a third of humanity. 16 The number of soldiers on horseback was 200,000,000; I heard their number. 17 Now this is what the horses and their riders looked like in my vision: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and sulfurous yellow in color. The heads of the horses looked like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur came out of their mouths. 18 A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues, that is, by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses resides in their mouths and in their tails because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries. 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols⁠ made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols⁠ that cannot see or hear or walk about.⁠ 21 Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.

Texts in conversation

Compare Job 28:22 and Revelation 9:11

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation introduces Abaddon as a divine being, the angel of the abyss who leads destructive forces. This figure may be based on Job, where Abaddon and Death are personified to express ignorance about the source of wisdom.

Passages

Job 28:22

Hebrew Bible
20 “But wisdom—where does it come from? Where is the place of understanding? 21 For it has been hidden from the eyes of every living creature, and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed. 22 Abaddon and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.’ 23 God understands the way to it, and he alone knows its place. 24 For he looks to the ends of the earth and observes everything under the heavens.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

Revelation 9:11

New Testament
9 They had breastplates like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots charging into battle. 10 They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. 12 The first woe has passed, but two woes are still coming after these things!
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... Of the remaining terms, 'the dust' is used as in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2, two key passages for the Jewish concept of resurrection, as well as in other Old Testament passages (e.g. Job 17:16; 20:11; Psalm 22:29; 30:10), for the place of the dead. 'The angel of death' in text E (2 Baruch 21:23) may be Abaddon, who is 'the angel of the abyss' in Revelation 9:11. The personification of Abaddon in Job 28:22 could have led to the idea that he is the angel in charge of the underworld and therefore the angelic power to whom God entrusts the dead. In Revelation 20:13 the three places of the dead are the sea, Death and Hades. The personified Death may be this author's substitute for Abaddon, since he has used the latter name for the king of the demons (rather than the ruler of the dead) in 9:11. Death and Hades are a standard pair in Revelation (1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14) and may represent the Old Testament pair Sheol and Abaddon, though there is also Old Testament precedent for the pair Death and Sheol (Hosea 13:14). More problematic is the sea. it is not plausible to introduce a distinction between body and soul into this verse, so that sea is the place from which the bodies of those who have died at sea are recovered, while Death and Hades surrender their souls. In this case, the earth as the place where the bodies of other people are to be found would surely have to be mentioned too. But in any case, the object of both clauses is 'the dead'. The language is clearly not intended to distinguish soul and body, but simply to speak of the return of the dead ..."
Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 279–280.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Job 28:22 and Revelation 9:11

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