Rushing Horses

The locust plague that John sees coming from the abyss sounds like an army, chariots and horses rushing into battle (Revelation 9:9). Locusts that sound like chariots have appeared already in Joel (2:5), and the voice of horses is the voice of cherubim (Ezekiel 1:24; 3:13; 10:5). The locust horde is a a demonic army of cherubim.

But there’s a more subtle echo, almost unheard, in John’s description. The description of horses “rushing” is used only a handful of times in the LXX, and in three instances it is used in connection with kingship. Samuel warns that Israel’s kings will have rushing horses (1 Samuel 8:1), and sure enough Absalom hires an entourage of horses and chariots to rush ahead of him as he travels through the city (2 Samuel 15:1). Adonijah, an even less successful Absalom, does the same (1 Kings 1:5). In the last two instances, the rushing horses are part of a coup attempt: Absalom does overthrow David briefly, and Adonijah’s rushing horses are part of an attempt to slip in ahead of Solomon. Both are opposed to the Davidic king.

That lends a couple of nuances to Revelation 9. There is a king in that passage too, Abaddon/Apollyon, and he too is trying to overthrow a Davidic king, the Lamb on the throne. His demon cavalry is, like Absalom’s and Adonijah’s, as much for show as for battle. After all, the scorpion-locusts don’t actually kill anyone, just torment them enough to make them wish for death. 

Abaddon/Apollyon – even the name conjures some distant memory of David’s rebel sons.