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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 Isaiah 5:25 and Revelation 9:20 and Jonathan Isaiah 5:25

Hebrew Bible · New Testament · Targum

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Summary

The Aramaic Targum of Isaiah 5 adds a detail, not found in the Hebrew, that despite judgment the people do not repent. This resembles Revelation 9, where even after plagues, people continue to sin. Revelation may echo a similar Aramaic tradition.

Passages

Isaiah 5:25

Hebrew Bible
24 Therefore, as flaming fire devours straw and dry grass disintegrates in the flames, so their root will rot, and their flower will blow away like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, they have spurned the commands of the Holy One of Israel. 25 So the Lord is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again. 26 He lifts a signal flag for a distant nation, he whistles for it to come from the far regions of the earth. Look, they come quickly and swiftly.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Revelation 9:20

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

Jonathan Isaiah 5:25

Targum
24 Therefore they will be devoured like stubble in the fire and like dry hay in the flame; their strength is multiplying, but it will be like an ulcer, and the money of their oppression like the dust that flies away; because they despised the Torah of the LORD of hosts and rejected the Memra, the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the LORD of hosts is mighty against His people, and He has lifted the stroke of His power upon them. When He struck them, the mountains moved, and their carcasses were cast out like dung in the midst of the streets. For all this they do not turn away from their sins, that His fury might turn away from them; but until now their rebellion grows stronger, and His stroke is again to take vengeance on them. 26 And He will lift up a banner to the nations from far away, and He will call him from the end of the earth; and a king with his army will come swiftly, like light clouds.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... God's “judgment” (verse 16), however, is such that “the righteous” will possess the wealth of the wicked (verse 17). Promise, therefore, balances threat (compare 4:2–4:6). But the threat is still there for those who multiply “sins,” tempting “wonders” from God, and perverting the just order — they will suffer by the same law which the “righteous” enjoy (verses 18–20). Their “possessions” are a particular object of God's wrath (verses 22, 24) as well as their extortion in legal matters (verse 23). (In respect of the phrase “mammon of deceit,” compare Luke 16:9, 11. Yet despite God’s righteous anger (verses 24–25), repentance seems all the further from them (verse 25, compare Revelation 9:20, 21; 16:9, 11) ..."
Bruce D. Chilton, The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus and Notes, ArBib 11 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987), 13.

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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Isaiah 5:25 and Revelation 9:20 and Jonathan Isaiah 5:25

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