Revelation 9:7-12

7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
12The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.



9:7-9 - The demon-locusts are very similar in many ways to the descriptions of the invading heathen armies given by the prophets (Jer. 51:27; Joel 1:6; 2:1-11). John seems to be indicating that these demon-locusts are imposters, wearing something like crowns of gold. He also tells us that their faces resembled human faces. What could John mean by this? If, as we stated earlier, he is referring to a demon army, then this would make sense as demons have the ability to possess human beings and influence their behavior (Luke 8:29).

The description of the demon-locust army may then, refer to the gangs of murderous Zealots who roamed around Jerusalem during the Roman siege in 70 AD. These thug gangs terrorized the people of Jerusalem. According to Josephus, the people had more to fear from the Zealots than they did from the Romans. He wrote in The Jewish War, "With their insatiable hunger for loot, they ransacked the houses of the wealthy, murdered men and violated women for sport; they drank their spoils with blood, and from mere satiety they shamelessly gave themselves up to effeminate practices, plaiting their hair and putting on women’s clothes. . . They copied not merely the dress, but also the passions of women, devising in their excess of licentiousness unlawful pleasures in which they wallowed as in a brothel. Thus they entirely polluted the city with their foul practices. Yet though they wore women’s faces, their hands were murderous." It is quite probable that John was referring to this band of demon-influenced Zealots who had given themselves over to all types of perverse and violent acts. This makes sense of John’s words, their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

John, in describing the locust army, said the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. This is the same sound made by the wings of the angels in the Glory Cloud (Ezek. 1:24; 3:13; 2 Kings 7:5-7). The difference is that this sound is made by demons and the demon-influenced. John is drawing a comparison here, although demons and fallen angels are distinct beings. According to Genesis 6 and the book of Enoch (which was accepted as accurate by Jude, Peter, and universally embraced by the early Church Fathers) the demons were the Nephilim. The Nephilim were the offspring of fallen angels and human women who taught mankind all kinds of evil. The Nephilim, after their physical death, were sentenced to roam the earth as bodiless spirits until the end of all things.

9:10-12 - John describes these demons as having tails and stings like scorpions, thus identifying them with Satan, the ultimate serpent and scorpion. John identifies the king of these demons with both his Greek and Hebrew names, Apollyon and Abaddon. Both words mean Destruction and Destroyer. Abaddon is often used in the Old Testament as a symbol for the realm of the dead or the "place of destruction" (Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Ps. 88:11; Prov. 15:11; 27:20). This can be a bit confusing because we are dealing with so many symbols here. Basically, Abaddon, is a symbol of destruction. Destruction is a metaphor for the realm of the dead, which is Sheol in the Hebrew. Even though Satan has never been to Sheol, he is the destroyer and thus also symbolizes Sheol. Thus, when John says that Abaddon is the king of the demons, he is referring to none other than Satan. Satan is the ultimate personification of death and destruction (Heb. 2;14). This is not to imply that Satan is literally, nor has he ever been in the Abyss or in Sheol. Satan currently roams the earth (Job 1:7; 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8) and his ultimate fate is Gehenna, the Lake of Fire (Matt. 25:41). John is telling us that Satan’s minions are about to be let loose upon the Jewish nation. This would indeed be hell on earth. And yet, this is only the first of the three woes. This is not the worst of the woes. There are two yet to come.