533. APOCALYPSE. CHAPTER 9.

1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen unto the earth; and there was given unto him the key of the pit of the abyss.

2. And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke ¹ of a great furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air, by the smoke of the pit.

3. And out of the smoke there went forth locusts on the earth; and there was given unto them power as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but the men only that have not the seal of God on their foreheads.

5. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they should torment them five months; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man.

6. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it; and they shall long to die and death shall flee from them.

7. And the likenesses of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for battle; and upon their heads as it were crowns like gold, and their faces as men's faces.

8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as those of lions.

9. And they had breastplates as iron breastplates; and the voice of their wings was as the voice of chariots of many horses running into battle.

10. And they had tails like scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months.

11. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew Abaddon, and in Greek he hath the name Apollyon.

12. One woe is past; behold there come yet two woes after this.

13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.

14. Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.

15. And the four angels were loosed that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men.

16. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two myriads of myriads; and I heard the number of them.

17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those that sat on them, having breastplates fiery and hyacinthine and brimstone-like; and the heads of the horses as the beads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone.

18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone that proceeded out of their mouths.

19. For their power was in their mouth, for their tails were like serpents and had heads, and with them do they hurt.

20. And the rest of men who were not killed in these plagues, and repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not adore demons and idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

21. And repented not of their murders nor of their enchantments nor of their whoredoms nor of their thefts.

Footnotes:

429. Verse 4. And I heard the number of those sealed, signifies the quality of those who are in good who are separated from the evil. This is evident from the signification of "number," as being the quality of the thing treated of (of which presently); also from the signification of "those sealed," as being those who are in good, distinguished and separated from others (of which just above, n. 427. "Number" and "measure" are mentioned in many passages in the Word, and it is believed that these mean simply number and measure; but "number" and "measure" in the spiritual sense mean the quality of the thing treated of. The quality itself is determined by the numbers expressed, as here by the "hundred and forty-four thousand," and afterwards the "twelve thousand" out of every tribe. What is signified by these numbers will be told in the following article. Number signifies the quality of the thing treated of for the reason that the Word is spiritual, and therefore each and every thing that it contains is spiritual, and spiritual things are not numbered or measured, but still they fall into numbers and measures when they come down out of the spiritual world or out of heaven where the angels are into the natural world or upon the earth where men are; and likewise in the Word, when they come down out of its spiritual sense in which the angels are into the natural sense in which men are; the natural sense of the Word is the sense of its letter. This is why there are numbers in that sense, and why the numbers there signify things spiritual, or such as pertain to heaven and the church. That the spiritual things of heaven, such as the angels think and speak about, also fall into numbers, has often been shown to me. When they spoke with each other, what they said was determined into pure numbers, which were seen upon paper; and they afterwards said that this was what they had said determined into numbers, and that these numbers in series contained everything they had said; I was also taught what they signified and how they were to be understood; this will be spoken of frequently in what follows. (But respecting writings in pure numbers out of heaven, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 263; that all numbers in the Word signify the things of heaven and the church, see above, n. 203, 336[1-10])