Revelation 9:6

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. SHALL DESIRE, [ epithumeesousin (G1937)] - set their mind on. SHALL FLEE. So B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic ['Aleph ('), fugee (G5437)]; but A, 'fleeth,' namely, continually. In Revelation 6:16, at a later stage of God's judgments, the ungodly seek annihilation, not from the torment of suffering, but from fear of the Lamb, before whom they have to stand....

1-12 Upon sounding the fifth trumpet, a star fell from heaven to the earth. Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ. On the opening of the bottomless pit, there arose a great smoke. The devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, by putting out light and knowledge, and promoting ignorance and error. Out of this smoke there came a swarm of locusts, emblems of the devil's agents, who promote superstition, idolatry, error, and cruelty. The trees and the grass, the true believers, whether young or more advanced, should be untouched. But a secret poison and infection in the soul, should rob many others of purity, and afterwards of peace. The locusts had no power to hurt those who had the seal of God. God's all-powerful, distinguishing grace wi...

Verse Revelation 9:6. _IN THOSE DAYS SHALL MEN SEEK DEATH_] So distressing shall be their sufferings and torment that they shall long for death in _any form_, to be rescued from the evils of life. There is a sentiment much like this in _Maximianus_, Eleg. i., ver. 111, commonly attributed to _Cornelius Gallus_:- Nunc quia longa mihi gravis est et inutilis aetas, Vivere cum nequeam, sit mihi posse mori? O quam dura premit miseros conditio vitae! Nec mors humano subjacet arbitrio. _Dulce mori miseris; sed mors optata recedit:_ At cum tristis erit, praecipitata venit....

AND IN THOSE DAYS SHALL MEN SEEK DEATH ... - See the notes on Revelation 9:5. It is very easy to conceive of such a state of things as is here described, and, indeed, this has not been very uncommon in the world. It is a state where the distress is so great that people would consider death a relief, and where they anxiously look to the time when they may be released from their sufferings by death. In the case before us it is not intimated that they would lay violent hands on themselves, or that they would take any positive measures to end their sufferings; and this, perhaps, may be a circumstance of some importance to show that the persons referred to were servants of God. When it is said that “they would seek death,” it can only be meant that they would look out for it - or desire it - as the end of their sorrows. This is descriptive, as we shall see, of a pa

EXPOSITION REVELATION 9:1 AND THE FIFTH ANGEL SOUNDED, AND I SAW A STAR FALL FROM HEAVEN UNTO THE EARTH; _a star from heaven fallen unto the earth _(Revised Version); not _saw a star fall. _(For the distinctive character of the last three judgments, see on Revelation 8:2.) "A star" sometimes signifies one high in position. Thus Numbers 24:17, "There shall come a star out of Jacob;" Daniel 8:10, "And it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground." In Revelation 1:20

AND IN THOSE DAYS MEN SHALL SEEK DEATH,.... Or desire to die, as Job did: AND SHALL NOT FIND IT; or shall not die: AND SHALL DESIRE TO DIE, AND DEATH SHALL FLEE FROM THEM; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jeremiah 8:3. The ravages of the Saracens, their incursions, and the invasions by them, struck such terror into the inhabitants of divers parts of the empire, that they made death more eligible to them than life....

CHAPTER 9 Revelation 9:1 . The remaining three trumpets have a “woe” attached to each. This is announced in the last verse of the preceding chapter, where the word angel should be “eagle.” An eagle, the bird of prey, proclaims the threefold woe. He acts thus as a herald of great judgments (Matthew 24:28, Revelation 19:17). The fifth trumpet is a special judgment upon apostate Israel: because those who suffer are they “which have not the seal of God on their foreheads” (Revelation 9:4). The great tribulation in the second half of the week, comes now into prominence. If we turn to...

THE FIFTH TRUMPET OR THE FIRST WOE. The seer sees a star fallen on the earth. The star seems to represent a person, possibly Satan (_cf._ Luke 10:18). ABYSS: the word properly means bottomless, and is used in OT of the abode of the dead, _e.g._ Psalms 71:20. The abyss is approached by a shaft or well, here translated pit, which is closed and kept under lock and key. Revelation 9:3. out of the smoke came. locusts: _cf._ Exodus 10:13 and Driver's quotation of the observations of a modern traveller: we observed large dark clouds resembling smoke moving to and fro. One morning these clouds came down and proved

THE FIFTH TRUMPET. We are now prepared to listen to the trumpet of the fifth angel, and to behold the symbolism described by the prophet.. quote: And the fifth angel sounded, and. saw. star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose. smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of. great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as...

THE UNLOCKING OF THE ABYSS (Revelation 9:1-2) _ 9:1,2 The fifth angel sounded a blast on his trumpet, and I saw a star failing from heaven on the earth, and to him there was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless abyss; and he opened the shaft of the abyss; and smoke went up from the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss._ The picture of terror mounts in its awful intensity. Now the terrors coming upon the earth are beyond nature; they are demonic; the abyss is being opened and superhuman terrors are being despatched upon the world. The picture will become clearer if we remember that John thinks of the stars as living beings. This is common in Enoch where, for instance, we read of wandering and disobedient stars being bound hand and foot and cast into the abyss (Enoch 86:1; 88:1).