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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 Revelation 9:8 and Testament of Solomon 29

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

Revelation’s description of locusts with human faces and hair like women resembles the demon Obyzouth in the Testament of Solomon, whose animal features and wild hair highlight her dangerous and chaotic nature. Both use feminine imagery to evoke fear.

Passages

Revelation 9:8

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

Testament of Solomon 29

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
56 I then asked the demon, ‘What are you called?’ It replied, ‘I am known as the crest of dragons.’ I commanded it to assist in making bricks for the Temple construction. Remarkably, it had human hands. 57 I worshipped the Lord God of Israel and summoned another spirit. This spirit appeared in the form of a woman without limbs, with disheveled hair. I asked, ‘Who are you?’ She responded, ‘Who are you to inquire about me? Yet, since you must know, here I am, bound before you. Go and cleanse yourself in your royal chambers, then return to judge me.’
100–900 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Solomon

References

"... Solomon interrogates Obyzouth, a female demon with disheveled hair. Disheveled hair evokes Medusa, guardian goddess of Aphrodite, but demons with wild hair also appears in Revelation 9:8. Obyzouth travels all night looking for women giving birth in order to make them strangle their baby. The angel Raphael thwarts her by writing her name on a papyri ..."
Phillip J. Long, Testament of Solomon: A Catalog of Demons (Grace Christian University, 2017), 1–5.

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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Revelation 9:8 and Testament of Solomon 29

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