---
title: "Revelation 9 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/revelation/9/
description: "Locusts come forth from the bottomless pit. The vision of the army of horsemen. Revelation 9 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Revelation 9

Revelation 9 is chapter 9 of 22 in Revelation. Here are all 21 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Locusts come forth from the bottomless pit. The vision of the army of horsemen.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Revelation 9 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And the fifth Angel sounded the trumpet. And I saw upon the earth, a star that had fallen from heaven, and the key to the well of the abyss was given to him.
2. And he opened the well of the abyss. And the smoke of the well ascended, like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were obscured by the smoke of the well.
3. And locusts went forth from the smoke of the well into the earth. And power was given to them, like the power that the scorpions of the earth have.
4. And it was commanded of them that they must not harm the plants of the earth, nor anything green, nor any tree, but only those men who do not have the Seal of God upon their foreheads.
5. And it was given to them that they would not kill them, but that they would torture them for five months. And their torture was like the torture of a scorpion, when he strikes a man.
6. And in those days, men will seek death and they will not find it. And they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
7. And the likenesses of the locusts resembled horses prepared for battle. And upon their heads were something like crowns similar to gold. And their faces were like the faces of men.
8. And they had hair like the hair of women. And their teeth were like the teeth of lions.
9. And they had breastplates like iron breastplates. And the noise of their wings was like the noise of many running horses, rushing to battle.
10. And they had tails similar to scorpions. And there were stingers in their tails, and these had the power to harm men for five months.
11. And they had over them a king, the Angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Doom; in Greek, Destroyer; in Latin, Exterminator.
12. One woe has gone out, but behold, there are still two woes approaching afterward.
13. And the sixth Angel sounded the trumpet. And I heard a lone voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before the eyes of God,
14. saying to the sixth Angel who had the trumpet: “Release the four Angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15. And the four Angels were released, who had been prepared for that hour, and day, and month, and year, in order to kill one third part of men.
16. And the number of the army of horsemen was two hundred million. For I heard their number.
17. And I also saw the horses in the vision. And those who were sitting upon them had breastplates of fire and hyacinth and sulphur. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions. And from their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and sulphur.
18. And one third part of men were slain by these three afflictions: by the fire and by the smoke and by the sulphur, which proceeded from their mouths.
19. For the power of these horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails resemble serpents, having heads; and it is with these that they cause harm.
20. And the rest of men, who were not slain by these afflictions, did not repent from the works of their hands, so that they would not worship demons, or idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.
21. And they did not repent from their murders, nor from their drugs, nor from their fornication, nor from their thefts.

## Revelation 9 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Et quintus angelus tuba cecinit: et vidi stellam de cælo cecidisse in terram, et data est ei clavis putei abyssi.
2. Et aperuit puteum abyssi: et ascendit fumus putei, sicut fumus fornacis magnæ: et obscuratus est sol, et aër de fumo putei:
3. et de fumo putei exierunt locustæ in terram, et data est illis potestas, sicut habent potestatem scorpiones terræ:
4. et præceptum est illis ne læderent fœnum terræ, neque omne viride, neque omnem arborem: nisi tantum homines, qui non habent signum Dei in frontibus suis:
5. et datum est illis ne occiderent eos: sed ut cruciarent mensibus quinque: et cruciatus eorum, ut cruciatus scorpii cum percutit hominem.
6. Et in diebus illis quærent homines mortem, et non invenient eam: et desiderabunt mori, et fugiet mors ab eis.
7. Et similitudines locustarum, similes equis paratis in prælium: et super capita earum tamquam coronæ similes auro: et facies earum tamquam facies hominum.
8. Et habebant capillos sicut capillos mulierum. Et dentes earum, sicut dentes leonum erant:
9. et habebant loricas sicut loricas ferreas, et vox alarum earum sicut vox curruum equorum multorum currentium in bellum:
10. et habebant caudas similes scorpionum, et aculei erant in caudis earum: et potestas earum nocere hominibus mensibus quinque:
11. et habebant super se regem angelum abyssi cui nomen hebraice Abaddon, græce autem Apollyon, latine habens nomen Exterminans.
12. Væ unum abiit, et ecce veniunt adhuc duo væ post hæc.
13. Et sextus angelus tuba cecinit: et audivi vocem unam ex quatuor cornibus altaris aurei, quod est ante oculos Dei,
14. dicentem sexto angelo, qui habebat tubam: Solve quatuor angelos, qui alligati sunt in flumine magno Euphrate.
15. Et soluti sunt quatuor angeli, qui parati erant in horam, et diem, et mensem, et annum, ut occiderent tertiam partem hominum.
16. Et numerus equestris exercitus vicies millies dena millia. Et audivi numerum eorum.
17. Et ita vidi equos in visione: et qui sedebant super eos, habebant loricas igneas, et hyacinthinas, et sulphureas, et capita equorum erant tamquam capita leonum: et de ore eorum procedit ignis, et fumus, et sulphur.
18. Et ab his tribus plagis occisa est tertia pars hominum de igne, et de fumo, et sulphure, quæ procedebant de ore ipsorum.
19. Potestas enim equorum in ore eorum est, et in caudis eorum, nam caudæ eorum similes serpentibus, habentes capita: et in his nocent.
20. Et ceteri homines, qui non sunt occisi in his plagis, neque pœnitentiam egerunt de operibus manuum suarum, ut non adorarent dæmonia, et simulacra aurea, et argentea, et ærea, et lapidea, et lignea, quæ neque videre possunt, neque audire, neque ambulare,
21. et non egerunt pœnitentiam ab homicidiis suis, neque a veneficiis suis, neque a fornicatione sua, neque a furtis suis.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 1296: The Signs and the Rite of Confirmation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: This may mean the fall and apostasy of great and learned men from the true faith. Or a whole nation falling into error and separating from the church, not having the sign of God in their foreheads.
- Verse 1: That is, to the angel, not to the fallen star. To this angel was given the power, which is here signified by a key, of opening hell.
- Verse 3: These may be devils in Antichrist's time, having the appearance of locusts, but large and monstrous, as here described. Or they may be real locusts, but of an extraordinary size and monstrous shape, such as were never before seen on earth, sent to torment those who have not the sign (or seal) of God on their foreheads. Some commentators by these locusts understand heretics, and especially those heretics, that sprung from Jews, and with them denied the divinity of Jesus Christ; as Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Arius, etc. These were great enemies of the Christian religion; they tormented and infected the souls of men, stinging them like scorpions, with the poison of their heresies. Others have explained these locusts, and other animals, mentioned in different places throughout this sacred and mystical book, in a most absurd, fanciful, and ridiculous manner; they make Abaddon the Pope, and the locusts to be friars mendicant, etc. Here it is thought proper, not to enter into any controversy upon that subject, as the inventors of these fancies have been already answered, and fully refuted by many controvertists: besides, those who might be inposed on by such chimerical writers, are in these days much better informed.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).