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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 Deuteronomy 1:7 and Revelation 9:14

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation’s reference to the Euphrates river recalls Deuteronomy where it marks the eastern boundary of the land promised to Israel. By using the same marker, Revelation links its apocalyptic narrative to earlier covenant promises tied to that border.

Passages

Deuteronomy 1:7

Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, “You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough. 7 Head out and resume your journey. Enter the Amorite hill country, and all its neighboring areas, including the rift valley, the hill country, the foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain—all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates. 8 Look! I have already given the land to you. Go, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Revelation 9:14

New Testament
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.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... The Euphrates River, the largest river in the region - which, unlike most rivers in the Near East, was never known to dry up - formed the eastern boundary of the land promised in God’s covenant with Abraham and his seed (Genesis 15:18; Deuteronomy 1:7-8; Joshua 1:3-4). The heathen were thought to live outside the boundaries of this land. The action here reminds the reader of the drying up of the Red Sea in the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 14:21) and the Jordan River in the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 3:7-17; see also 2 Kings 2:8). Israel’s scriptures expected the Exodus miracles to be repeated when the people returned from exile (Isaiah 11:15-16; Zechariah 10:10-12; 2 Esdras 13:39-47). The reason given for the drying of the Euphrates is to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Although Isaiah promised the waters would dry up for Israel’s return from Assyria (Isaiah 11:15-16), and Titus recruited from beyond the Euphrates for the Jewish War that culminated in the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Ford, 1975:273), the most clear referent for the imagery in this passage is no doubt the expected return of Nero from the East ..."
John R. Yeatts, Revelation (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 2003), 294.

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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Deuteronomy 1:7 and Revelation 9:14

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