Revelation Chapter 9 verse 11 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 11. - And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit; they have over them as king the angel of the abyss (Revised Version). Most commentators contrast with the condition of the natural locusts, who have no king (Proverbs 30:7). "The angel" evidently, points to the star of ver. l, who is Satan himself. Some think a particular angel, not Satan, is intended. Alford unnecessarily hesitates to decide that Satan is meant, owing to Revelation 12:3, 9. Whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Abaddon is the Hebrew אֲבַדּון, a noun representing the abstract idea "destruction" (Job 31:12), but more frequently employed to designate the netherworld (Job 26:6; Job 28:22; Proverbs 15:11; Psalm 88:12). Apollyon (ἀπολλύων, present participle) is the Greek ἀπώλεια (by which the LXX. renders אֲבַדּון) personified. It is in conformity with St. John's usual practice to give the two forms of the name (cf. John 1:38, 42; John 4:25; John 9:7; John 11:16; John 19:13, 17). In the name we have summed up the character of him who bears it. He is the "destroyer," the one who causes "perdition" to mankind. Cf. the words of our Lord given by St. John (John 8:44), "He was a murderer from the beginning." Bengel and others contrast with "Jesus" the "Saviour." Perhaps the height of absurdity is reached by those writers (Bleek, Volkmar) who see in the name Apollyon a reference to (N)apoleon.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(11) And they had a king . . .--Better, They have over them as king (not "the angel," as in English version) an angel of the abyss; his name (is) in Hebrew Abaddon, and in the Greek he has a name, Apollyon. There is more than one point in which the seer wishes us to mark the contrast between these symbolical and the natural locusts. Locusts have no sting; these have. Locusts have no king (Proverbs 30:27); these have a king. The movements of the invading locusts are conducted with wonderful precision and order, yet no presiding monarch arranges their march; but here there is a directing and controlling head. The great movement is no mere undesigned or instinctive one, but the offspring of a hidden, spiritual force. The great battle is not on the surface only, the invasions, revolutions, tyrannies, which try and trouble mankind, involve spiritual principles, and are but tokens of the great conflict between the spirit of destruction and the spirit of salvation, between Christ and Belial, God and Mammon, the Prince of this world and the Prince of the kings of the earth. The king of these locust hordes is named in Hebrew Abaddon, or Perdition, a name sometimes given to the place or abode of destruction (Job 26:6). "Destruction (Abaddon) hath no covering"--i.e., before God. (Comp. Proverbs 15:11). In Greek his name is Apollyon, or Destroyer: The spirit of the destroyer is the spirit that inspires these hosts. It is a great movement, but its end is destruction, as its inspiring genius is from beneath, from an angel of the nether world. It is not necessary for us to seek some great historical personage for the fulfilment of this portion of the prophecy, any more than we ought to accept any great historical event as an exhaustive fulfilment of the vision. The picture is vivid and forcible, and its full and certain meaning will be plain hereafter; but it at least should draw our minds from the curiosity which seeks for historical or personal counterparts to the self-vigilance which fears lest our own spirit should be injured by the prevalence of any form of evil. It should teach us to remember always the vehement, earnest way in which the sacred writers describe the subtle, venomous power of all sin, and the merciless destructiveness of its work. It is not of any invading hosts, or signal and special forms of evil, but of the terrible and usual influence of all sin, that the Apostle St. Paul writes when he describes the world-wide devastations of sin in language partly borrowed from the Old Testament, but singularly reminding us of the vision before us. "There is none that doeth good; no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; the poison of asps is upon their lips; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:12-18). It is perhaps well to notice that at this fifth trumpet the unseen spiritual powers of darkness appear taking part in. the conflict. There is a time when the obstinate resistance of mankind (yes, and of individual men and women also) to better things becomes fortified by an evil spirit, and they are no longer passive resisters of good, but they become active antagonists of good, hating and obscuring the light of truth, and wounding the spirits and consciences of men. Alas! many walk of whom the Apostle could only say with tears, "they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (the emblem of salvation), "and whose end is destruction" (Philippians 3:18-19).