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1The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. 2He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. 3Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. 5They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. 6In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

7The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces. 8They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots and horses rushing to war. 10They have tails like those of scorpions, with stingers. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months. 11They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.

12The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.

13The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!”

15The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. 16The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them. 17Thus I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18By these three plagues, one third of mankind was killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. 19For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads; and with them they harm.

20The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can’t see, hear, or walk. 21They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Satan Bound a Thousand Years (20:1-3)

Satan Bound a Thousand Years (20:1-3)

Note | Rev 20:1 | Gary W Derickson

Satan was bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years. The elements of this part of the vision begin with an unnamed angel coming to Earth from Heaven. The abyss seen here is the same one locust-like creatures came out of in Chapter 9. It is the prison house of demons. The angel with the key in Chapter 9 was named. This angel is not. Since angels are spirit beings, the chain should be understood as symbolic rather than literal. The point is that by whatever works on spirit beings, Satan will be captured and bound by this powerful angel.

The multiple epithets make clear that Satan himself is captured and bound. The length of his sentence is given as a thousand years. Many interpreters see this as symbolic language, along with the other elements of the vision. Rather than understanding that Satan will be bound a thousand literal years, some take it to mean the church age or an indefinite time. Premillennialists and Dispensationalists, on the other hand, understand this to be a literal thousand years. The number “thousand” is not used figuratively anywhere else in Scripture. Satan is not presently bound or imprisoned, but active on the planet (1 Pet 5:8). The thousand years will entail the time of Christ’s Messianic rule over all the earth.

Satan’s restriction will deny him access to the nations and their people. He will be released after the thousand years and deceive people once more, but only for a short time. How long the “short time” will be is not given.