The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man (Rev. 9:1-5 NIV).
Stars can allude to natural stars or angelic beings. Stars are part of God's cosmic creation (Gen. 1:16). Stars are alluded to as angelic beings that dwell in heaven "among the stars" (Job 38:7). This angel has a key to the bottomless pit. The Greek word is abyssos, and is translated in other versions as the abyss. The phrase "bottomless pit" is mentioned in seven verses in the Apocalypse. It alludes to a very deep pit or abyss located under the earth.
There are fallen angels located under the earth. In Isa 14:15, Satan is told he would be brought down to the "sides of the pit." In Luke 8:31, the demons asked Christ not to send them into the "deep" (abyss). In II Peter 2:4, wicked angels are also bound in hell in a place called tartarus in the Greek. There are strange creatures called locusts that are released on earth out of the pit! These are believed to be Islamic hordes, an Islamic Army!
The description of the locust: In Joel 1:4, invading armies were compared to swarming locusts. In Amos 7:1-3, men were likened to locusts (Jud. 6:5; Jer. 46:23; Nahum 3:15). In Rev. 9:14, the center of the conflict is the Euphrates River (they kill one-third of mankind). The Revelation description of the strange locusts:
1. They were like horses prepared for battle (Rev 9:7).
2. They had faces like men (Rev. 9:7).
3. They had hair like women (Rev. 9:8).
4. They had teeth of a lion (Rev. 9:8).
5. They had breastplates of iron (Rev. 9:9).
6. They had crowns of gold (Rev. 9:7).
7. They had a king over the pit (Rev. 9:11).
8. They torment (terrorize men) for five months (Rev. 9:10).
9. They have a sting in their tails (Rev. 9:10).
Some suggest these are modern weapons such as helicopters.
The king over the pit: He is a fallen angel named in Greek Apollyon and in Hebrew Abaddon (Rev. 9:11). The name alludes to destruction or being a destroyer.
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