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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 Wisdom of Solomon 16:9 and Revelation 9:3

Deuterocanon · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation’s description of locusts is similar to the Wisdom of Solomon, which reshapes the Exodus plagues. In it, Egypt’s suffering from locusts and flies is part of a similar pattern showing how God judges oppressors but shows mercy to Israel.

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 16:9

Deuterocanon
4 For it was necessary that inescapable lack should come upon those oppressors, but that to these it should only be shown how their enemies were tormented. 5 For even when terrible raging of wild beasts came upon your people, and they were perishing by the bites of crooked serpents, your wrath didn’t continue to the end; 6 but for admonition were they troubled for a short time, having a token of salvation to put them in remembrance of the commandment of your law; 7 for he who turned toward it was not saved because of that which was seen, but because of you, the Savior of all. 8 Yes, and in this you persuaded our enemies that you are he who delivers out of every evil. 9 For the bites of locusts and flies truly killed them. No healing for their life was found, because they were worthy to be punished by such things.
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

Revelation 9:3

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

References

"... The Egyptian plague tradition is also narrated in the Wisdom of Solomon in the framework of seven antitheses in which punishments meted out against the Egyptians are contrasted with blessings experienced by Israel: (a) blood (11:1–14); (b) “a multitude of irrational creatures” (11:15) or “a multitude of animals” (16:1–4), i.e., possibly the frogs and/or gnats and/or flies and/or locusts of Exodus; (c) people slain by the bites of locusts and flies (16:9); (d) thunderstorms and fire (16:15–19); (e) darkness (17:1–20); (f) destruction of firstborn (18:5–25); and (g) the drowning of Egyptians in the sea (19:1–9). While the author does not follow the ten-plague schema of Exodus 7–13 but uses a seven-plague schema, it is noteworthy that he exhibits no direct dependence on any of the earlier seven-plague schemas found in Ps 78:43–52; Ps 105:27–36; Amos 4:6–13; and Artapanus. The author includes the drowning of the Egyptian army in his seven-fold schema and omits cattle disease (the fifth plague) and boils (the sixth plague) ..."
David Aune, Word Biblical Commentary: Revelation 6-16 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017), 369.

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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Wisdom of Solomon 16:9 and Revelation 9:3

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