Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

What do I need to learn from this chapter?

• These locusts are not literal; they have a king, a person. See: Revelation 9 {4 of 6} Serpents
• Locusts is a metaphor for the destruction caused by a military action

Revelation 9:3 Then out of the smoke locusts (Gog is the king of the locusts: the Antichrist, see below) came upon the earth. And to them was given power (from Satan), as the scorpions of the earth have power (to hurt).

► [Amos 7:1 LXX: Septuagint] “Thus the Lord showed me, and behold a swarm (a flying army) of locusts were coming, and, behold, one of the young devastating locusts was Gog, the king”

[Amos 7:1 NKJV] Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings.” (the beginning of the late crop is the gleanings)

• John, the author of the book of Revelation, gives a distinct description of this locust army from the point of view of a man who had never seen military machines. He would compare them to Locusts.

Revelation 9:4 They (Gog, the army of the Antichrist) were commanded NOT to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

• This verse is critical for determining the timing of the beginning of the seals, trumpets, and bowls in the middle of the tribulation:

The First Trumpet is blown AFTER the vegetation is struck (right after the 144,000 young Jewish virgin men are sealed). This puts the attack on Jerusalem in the middle of the tribulation for the seals, trumpets, and bowls (all of which run consecutively. See chart at bottom).

Revelation 9:5 And they (The locusts) were NOT given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

Revelation 9:6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

• How can one not be able to kill themselves? They took the mark of the beast, therefore; they must be controlled by the mark, perhaps like a brain biochip connected to the image of the beast who acts as a “server”. He must be something like Ai. If the Antichrist is assassinated and resurrected, then it would make sense that technology would be used with a host of options to become “like life”; manipulated DNA, cloning, robotics, 3D printing of human organs, stem cells, downloading the memory on a biochip, etc.
• See Topic: DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE: THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST

Revelation 9:7 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold (brass), and their faces were like the faces of men (through the windows).

Revelation 9:8 They had hair like women’s hair (blades), and their teeth were like lions’ teeth (the grill).

Revelation 9:9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.  (The whirl of the blades)

Revelation 9:10 They had tails (guns) like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

Revelation 9:11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is (Destruction) Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon (Destroyer).

• Gog is the king of the locusts (Amos 7:1 LXX) He is the Antichrist indwelt by Satan, the destroyer. He comes from the bottomless pit where enough is never enough. His appetite is insatiable for fame, money, power, worship, and all things pertaining to the world.

• Locusts leave devastation:
• The Midianites are a type of the battle of Gog and Magog where Gog is the Antichrist and the king of the locusts: A shadow of what is to come.
  
  Judges 6:¹ Midianites Oppress Israel – Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years (like the seven-year Tribulation), ² and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains (Isaiah 2:19, Revelation 6:15). ³ So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites (descendants of King Agag/Gog, Ezekiel ch. 38-39) and the people of the East (Syrian) would come up against them. ⁴ Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts (military); both they and their camels (a camel is literally and symbolically a round vertical millstone rolling in the groove of the lower horizontal flat millstone to crush olives or grapes: the definition of a camel is called “a rider”) (the locusts and camels) were without number (See Isaiah 21); and they would enter the land to destroy it. ⁶ So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. (At the end of the seven-year Tribulation, the remnant of Jews will cry out to God, they will see Jesus coming in the clouds with the saints and angels to fight on behalf of the Jews. They will recognize their Messiah as being Jesus.)

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Rev 9 {1 of 6} 5th and 6th Trumpets
Rev 9 {2 of 6} Locusts
Rev 9 {3 of 6} Lions
Rev 9 {4 of 6} Serpents
Rev 9 {5 of 6} Four Horns of the Altar
Rev 9 {6 of 6} No Repentance

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