Who are the locust of Revelation 9:1-11?, pt. 1

Key Text: And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a 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 a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a 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 torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Revelation 9:1-11

Study:

Who are the locusts of Revelation 9:1-11 or the 5th trumpet?

"...no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." 2 Peter 1:20 ... so let's ask the Bible.

Locust, Greek ἀκρίς, akris, occurs 4 times in the New Testament.

Mat. 3: 4. his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Mar. 1: 6. he did eat locusts and wild honey;
Rev. 9: 3. out of the smoke locusts upon the
   9: 7. the shapes of the locusts (were) like unto

The last two verses come from our text in Revelation. The first two tell us nothing. Both tell us that John the Baptist ate locust in the wilderness. Nothing symbolic there! Since the New Testament is of no help let us turn to the Old Testament. The Old Testament has several Hebrew words which are translated by English grasshopper or locust. We will look at the earliest occurrences first.

Ex. 10: 4. I bring the locusts into thy coast
   10: 12. for the locusts, that they may come up
   10: 13. the east wind brought the locusts.
   10: 14. And the locusts went up over all
       there were no such locusts as they
   10: 19. which took away the locusts,
       there remained not one locust 
Le. 11: 22. ye may eat; the locust after his kind
De. 28: 38. for the locust shall consume it.
Ju. 6: 5. they came as grasshoppers for multitude
   7: 12. like grasshoppers for multitude
1 Ki. 8: 37. mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller
2 Ch. 6: 28. blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers
Job 39: 20. Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?
Ps. 78: 46. their labour unto the locust.
   105: 34. He spake, and the locusts came
   109: 23. I am tossed up and down as the locust.
Pr. 30: 27. The locusts have no king, 
Je. 46: 23. they are more than the grasshoppers
Joel 1: 4. the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten
       the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten
   2: 25. the years that the locust hath eaten
Na. 3: 15. make thyself many as the locusts
   3: 17. Thy crowned are as the locusts

The most prominent text is obviously the first set dealing with the plague of locust on Egypt (Ex. 10). Interestingly, this plague forms an anti-parallel with Revelation's locust.

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree... Revelation 9:4

...they ... shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: Exodus 10:5
...they may ... eat every herb of the land... Exodus 10:12
...they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. Exodus 10:15

Lest you doubt that there is a connection between the 5th trumpet and the plague of locust notice the pattern displayed between the 10 plagues on Egypt and the 7 trumpets & 7 bowls or plagues of Revelation.

Plagues on Egypt: Plague 6 - boils; Plague 7 - hail; Plague 8 - locust; Plague 9 - darkness
Trumps. & Bowls: Bowl 1 - sores; Trumpet 1 - hail; Trumpet 5 - locust; Bowl 5 - darkness

Exodus 9:10: "...and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man..."
Exodus 9:23: "...and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt."
Exodus 10:13: "...and the Lord brought an east wind ... and ... the east wind brought the locusts."
Exodus 10:22: "...and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:"

Rev. 8:7: "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood..."
Rev. 9:1-3: "And the fifth angel sounded, ... And there came ... locusts upon the earth..."
Rev. 16:2: "And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men..."
Rev. 16:10: "And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness..."

Notice that the plague of locust give us an origin for the locust of Revelation.

"And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts." Exodus 10:13

To the east of Egypt is Arabia! So these locusts are Arabian!

Skipping over Leviticus 11:22, which describes clean and unclean animals, and Deuteronomy 28:38, which describes curses,... both of which provide nothing to go on... are empty and depthless, providing no clues... we come to the story of Gideon in Judges 6-8. Here we meet a striking parallel with the locust of the plague on Egypt.

Both the plague of locust on Egypt and the Midianite "grasshoppers" come from the east!

"And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;" Judges 6:3
"Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel." Judges 6:33
"And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude." Judges 7:12
"Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword." Judges 8:10

These Midianites/children of the east provide another clue to the identity of Revelation's locust.

"And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)" Judges 8:24

So from the stories of the 10 plagues on Egypt, specifically the locust plague, and that of Gideon, we have learned that...

The locusts of Revelation's 5th trumpet are...

1. Arabian (from the east of Egypt), and...
2. Ishmaelites.

These lead to only one conclusion...

The locust of Revelation's 5th trumpet are Muslims!

To be continued!