Apocalipsis 9

VBL · Chapter 9/22

1Entonces el quinto ángel hizo sonar su trompeta. Y vi una estrella caer del cielo hasta la tierra. A él se le dio la llave que abre el Abismo.

2Y abrió la puerta del Abismo, y salía humo de allí, como el humo de una caldera enorme. El sol y la atmósfera se oscurecieron por el humo que salía del Abismo.

3Salieron langostas del humo hasta la tierra, y se les dio poder como de escorpiones.

4Se les dijo que no hicieran daño al pasto, ni a la vegetación, ni a los árboles, solo a aquellos que no tenían el sello de Dios sobre sus frentes.

5Y no tenían permiso de matar, pero podían torturar a estas personas durante cinco meses. Y la tortura era como el aguijón de un escorpión.

6Durante ese tiempo, la gente andará buscando la muerte, pero no la hallarán; querrán morir, pero la muerte huirá de ellos.

7Las langostas parecían caballos de guerra. Usaban algo que parecía como coronas de oro sobre sus cabezas, y sus rostros eran como de humanos.

8Tenían cabello largo como mujeres y dientes como de leones.

9Sus pectorales parecían haber sido hechos de hierro, y el ruido que hacían con sus alas era como el sonido de muchos caballos y carruajes que corrían hacia la batalla.

10Y tenían colas como de escorpiones, con aguijones. Tenían el poder de herir a la gente por cinco meses con sus colas.

11Y quien los lideraba como su rey era el ángel del Abismo que se llama Abadón en Hebreo y Apolión en griego.

12El primer Desastre ha terminado, pero aún faltan dos más.

13Entonces el sexto ángel hizo sonar su trompeta. Y escuché una voz que venía desde los cuernos del altar de oro que está frente a Dios

14y hablaba con el sexto ángel que tenía la trompeta: “Libera a los cuatro ángeles que están atados junto al Río Éufrates”.

15Los cuatro ángeles que habían sido reservados especialmente para esta hora, día, mes y año fueron liberados para matar a una tercera parte de la humanidad.

16Se me dijo el número de los soldados del ejército a caballo: era 200 millones.

17Y en mi visión vi a los caballos y a sus jinetes, que usaban pectorales rojos como el fuego, también azul oscuro y amarillo. Las cabezas de los caballos parecían de leones, y de sus bocas salía fuego, humo y azufre.

18Y por estas tres plagas murió una tercera parte de la humanidad, por el fuego, humo y azufre que salían de sus bocas.

19El poder de los caballos estaba en sus colas y en sus bocas, pues sus colas eran como cabezas de serpientes que usaban para herir a la gente.

20Pero el resto de la humanidad que no murió por estas plagas no se arrepintió de lo que estaba haciendo. No dejaron de adorar demonios ni ídolos de oro, plata, bronce y piedra, que no pueden oír ni caminar.

21Tampoco se arrepintieron de sus asesinatos, su brujería, sus pecados sexuales, ni sus hurtos.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The fifth trumpet releases monstrous locusts from the abyss that torment, but do not kill, the people without God's seal, for five months. The sixth trumpet unleashes an army of two hundred million demonic horsemen who kill a third of humanity, yet the survivors still do not repent.

Explanation

The bizarre description of the locusts — with crowns, human faces, women's hair, lions' teeth, iron breastplates, and scorpion tails — uses language highly typical of Jewish apocalyptic literature to describe intense spiritual and psychological torment, more than a literal creature to be identified. The name of the king of these beings, Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek, both meaning 'destruction' or 'destroyer,' reinforces his role as an agent of chaos coming from the abyss, not from God directly. The saddest point of the chapter is its ending: even after suffering such severe judgments, surviving humanity still does not repent of idolatry, sorcery, immorality, and theft, showing just how hard the human heart can become even in the face of evident calamity. Today's practical application is that judgments and suffering alone do not guarantee repentance; a change of heart requires a voluntary response to God's grace.

Fun facts

  • The names 'Abaddon' (Hebrew) and 'Apollyon' (Greek), both mentioned in verse 11, literally mean 'destruction' and 'destroyer'; 'Abaddon' also appears elsewhere in the Old Testament, such as in Job 26:6 and Proverbs 15:11, as a poetic synonym for the realm of the dead.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipsis 9:1The abyss was, in Jewish thought, a kind of underground prison where forces of chaos were locked away. Giving someone the key means authorizing the opening of something that until then had been sealed shut.
  2. Apocalipsis 9:2The smoke coming out of the abyss, compared to the smoke of a great furnace, darkens the sun and the air, echoing the same idea of the abyss as a prison of destructive forces, already mentioned in verse 1.
  3. Apocalipsis 9:3Locusts were one of the most feared disasters of antiquity, another reference to the plagues of Egypt, in Exodus. But these act the opposite of real locusts: they do not eat plants, only torment people, a sign that the scene is symbolic, not a description of real insects.
  4. Apocalipsis 9:4Unlike real locusts, which would eat plants, these creatures are ordered not to touch vegetation, only people without the protective seal described in chapter 7 - a sign that the scene is symbolic, and the seal determines who is affected.
  5. Apocalipsis 9:5The torment is limited - five months - and not fatal, compared to the pain of a scorpion's sting, an intense but not final suffering.
  6. Apocalipsis 9:6This describes suffering so great that death, normally seen as the worst possible fate, becomes something desired and yet unattainable.
  7. Apocalipsis 9:7The comparison to horses prepared for battle and crowns of golden appearance builds an image of an organized, threatening army, even though it is made up of symbolic creatures.
  8. Apocalipsis 9:8Hair like a woman's and teeth like a lion's continue building this hybrid creature, mixing human and animal features in a deliberately strange and frightening way.
  9. Apocalipsis 9:9The breastplates of iron and the noise compared to chariots of war reinforce the same idea of overwhelming military force used in the previous verses.
  10. Apocalipsis 9:10This closes the physical description of these creatures by repeating the scorpion image already used in verse 5, with tails capable of harming for a limited period of five months.
  11. Apocalipsis 9:11The two names, one in Hebrew and one in Greek, mean the same thing: ‘Destruction’ or ‘Destroyer.’ The text itself translates the symbol for the reader, naming this king by what he does, without tying him to any specific place or time.
  12. Apocalipsis 9:12This marks the end of the first “woe” announced in the previous chapter, warning that two more similar laments are still to come.
  13. Apocalipsis 9:13The sixth trumpet brings a voice coming from the four corners (“horns”) of the golden altar, the same altar from which the prayers of the saints rose at the beginning of chapter 8.
  14. Apocalipsis 9:14The Euphrates River was the historical eastern border of the Roman Empire, and in Israel's memory, the direction from which the great invading empires of the past had come, such as Assyria and Babylon. That is why it became the natural symbol of danger coming from the east for the earliest readers.
  15. Apocalipsis 9:15Four angels, bound until then, are released at an exact, already determined moment, “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,” to cause the death of a third of humanity - a detail suggesting a predetermined plan, not a random event.
  16. Apocalipsis 9:16The number given, two hundred million, is an exaggerated way of conveying an impossibly large army, typical of apocalyptic language, which uses extreme numbers for emphasis.
  17. Apocalipsis 9:17The colors of the breastplates - fire, jacinth (a bluish tone), and brimstone - combined with lions' heads spewing fire, smoke, and brimstone, form an image of visual terror more than a literal description of a real army.
  18. Apocalipsis 9:18This sums up the devastating effect of these three plagues coming out of the horses' mouths - fire, smoke, and brimstone - responsible for the death of a third of humanity.
  19. Apocalipsis 9:19This explains that the power of these creatures lies not only in their mouths but also in their tails, compared to serpents with heads of their own, capable of causing harm on their own.
  20. Apocalipsis 9:20This mockery of idols that cannot see, hear, or walk also appears in Psalm 115. The point is to show how strange it is to keep worshiping objects made by human hands even after going through so many disasters.
  21. Apocalipsis 9:21“Sorceries” translates a Greek word linked to the use of potions and drugs associated with the magical practices of the time; the list of sins the text says people did not give up shows that not even this level of suffering was enough to produce repentance.

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