independentparticipialrelativepurposecausecomparativecontentconditionalphrase modifierdashed = verbless / suspended
Flush-left = a main (independent) clause. Each dependent line begins directly beneath the word it attaches to in the line above — the anchor word is dotted-underlined, and lights up when you hover its dependent clause; each tag also names the attachment. A dashed border marks verbless, elliptical, or suspended lines. Where a long sentence's staircase runs wider than the page, the diagram scrolls sideways. (In print, or without JavaScript, lines fall back to stepped indent columns.)
The fifth trumpet — the locusts from the abyss 9:1–12
vv. 1–3 — the fallen star, the opened shaft, the locusts out of the smoke
1
And the fifth angel sounded his trumpet;independent — the fifth trumpet — the first Woe of 8:13 begins
and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth,independent — perfect πεπτωκότα — already fallen, a settled state; a personal agent, not a meteor
and to him was given the key of the shaft of the abyss.independent — divine passive ἐδόθη — the abyss opens only on loan
2
and he opened the shaft of the abyss,independent — the key used at once
and smoke went up out of the shaftindependent — the abyss answers with smoke
like the smoke of a great furnace,comparative — verbless — Sodom's furnace (Gen 19:28) and Sinai's (Exod 19:18)
and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the shaft.independent — darkness from below — Exod 10:15; Joel 2:10
3
And out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth,independent — the locusts emerge — Exod 10:12–15; Joel 1–2
and to them was given powerindependent — the second ἐδόθη — their power is delegated
as the scorpions of the earth have power.comparative — finite ὡς clause — scorpion-power, not locust-appetite
vv. 4–6 — the commission: torment, not death, for the unsealed
4
And they were toldindependent — ἐρρέθη — the command likewise passive, from the throne
not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree,content — the command — ἵνα + future indicative ἀδικήσουσιν, a Revelation idiom; anti-locust orders
but only the peoplephrase modifier — εἰ μή — the exception, accusative object of ἀδικήσουσιν
who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.relative — the sealed of 7:3 exempted — οἵτινες, 'such as'
5
And it was granted to themindependent — the third ἐδόθη — masculine αὐτοῖς for the feminine locusts, ad sensum
not to kill them,content — the limit — ἵνα + subjunctive
but that they should be tormented five months;content — ἵνα + future βασανισθήσονται — torment, not death; five months, a locust's season
and their torment was like the torment of a scorpionindependent — verbless comparison — the sting defined
when it stings a person.conditional — ὅταν — indefinite temporal, backward-leaning on the comparison, so anchored
6
And in those days people will seek deathindependent — the oracle — future; Job 3:21; Jer 8:3
and will by no means find it,independent — οὐ μή + future — the strongest denial
and they will long to die,independent — the pair doubled — desire after search
and death flees from them.independent — the tense breaks to vivid present φεύγει — death keeps running
vv. 7–11 — the description column, and the king of the abyss
7
And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle,independent — the description column opens — verbless; Joel 2:4
and on their heads were what looked like crowns like gold,independent — ὡς … ὅμοιοι χρυσῷ — as-if crowns, gold-like, twice hedged
and their faces were like human faces.independent — the horror of the almost-human
8
and they had hair like women's hair,independent — εἶχον — the column briefly finite; long antennae-hair
and their teeth were like lions' teeth,independent — Joel 1:6 — a nation with lion's teeth
9
and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron,independent — the thorax armored — invulnerable
and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses rushing into battle.independent — verbless — Joel 2:5, the chariot-din; τρεχόντων kept internal
10
And they have tails like scorpions, and stings;independent — the tense slides to present ἔχουσιν — the vision pressing near
and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months.independent — verbless — epexegetic ἀδικῆσαι names the power; the five months repeated, closing the frame of v. 5
11
They have over them as king the angel of the abyss;independent — asyndeton — against Prov 30:27, 'the locust has no king': these do
his name in Hebrew is Abaddon,independent — verbless — Abaddon, Destruction, the underworld of Job 26:6; 28:22
and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.independent — the bilingual naming — Apollyon, Destroyer; both tongues of the churches told who rules the pit
v. 12 — the tally of Woes
12
The first Woe has passed;independent — the tally — feminine ἡ οὐαί, the interjection treated as a noun
behold, two Woes are still coming after these things.independent — ἰδού — singular ἔρχεται before plural δύο οὐαί; the hinge to the sixth trumpet
The sixth trumpet — the cavalry from the Euphrates 9:13–19
vv. 13–16 — the voice from the altar; the four angels released
13
And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet;independent — the sixth trumpet — the second Woe
and I heard a single voice from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God,independent — one voice from the horns — the altar where the saints' prayers rose (8:3–5) now answers
14
saying to the sixth angel, the one holding the trumpet:participial — masculine λέγοντα with feminine φωνήν, and nominative ὁ ἔχων for the dative — the Apocalypse's grammar strains ad sensum
'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.'content — the quoted command — bound angels at the empire's dreaded frontier; τοὺς δεδεμένους kept internal
15
And the four angels were released,independent — ἐλύθησαν — the command executed, again in the passive
the ones prepared for the hour and day and month and year,participial — one article over the whole series — a single appointed point, not a duration
to kill a third of mankind.purpose — on ἡτοιμασμένοι — prepared precisely for this; the third escalates the fourth part of 6:8
16
And the number of the cavalry troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand;independent — verbless — δισμυριάδες μυριάδων, two hundred million, a number past counting
I heard their number.independent — asyndeton — heard, not counted (cf. 7:4)
vv. 17–19 — the horses and their riders; fire, smoke, and sulfur
17
And this is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those seated on them:independent — οὕτως points forward; ὅρασις — the only 'vision' so named in the book
having breastplates fiery-red and hyacinth-blue and sulfur-yellow;participial — accusative ἔχοντας — riders (and horses) armored in the very colors of their plague
and the heads of the horses were like lions' heads,independent — the description column resumes — verbless
and out of their mouths comes fire and smoke and sulfur.independent — vivid present ἐκπορεύεται — the triad that becomes the three plagues
18
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed,independent — asyndeton — the result; plural ἀπεκτάνθησαν with neuter τὸ τρίτον, ad sensum
by the fire and the smoke and the sulfur coming out of their mouths.phrase modifier — the plagues specified — ἐκ resumes ἀπό; singular τοῦ ἐκπορευομένου over the whole triad
19
for the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails;cause — γάρ — the ground of the slaughter: mouth and tail alike
for their tails are like serpents,cause — second γάρ — verbless comparison, ground of the ground
having heads,participial — nominative ἔχουσαι with αἱ οὐραί — tails that bite
and with them they do harm.cause — coordinate with the comparison — ἀδικοῦσιν closes the fifth trumpet's key verb on the sixth
The unrepentant 9:20–21
20
And the rest of mankind,independent — the subject suspended ahead of its verb
who were not killed by these plagues,relative — the survivors defined — the unkilled two-thirds
did not even repent of the works of their hands,independent — οὐδέ — not even; 'works of their hands' = idols (Deut 4:28; Jer 1:16)
so as to stop worshipingpurpose — ἵνα + future προσκυνήσουσιν again — result-tinged purpose: repentance would have meant leaving the shrines
the demons and the idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood,phrase modifier — the catalogue — demons behind the idols (Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37); five materials, descending in worth
which can neither see nor hear nor walk,relative — the idol-polemic — Ps 115:5–7; Dan 5:23
21
and they did not repentindependent — the refrain repeated — οὐ μετενόησαν
of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.phrase modifier — the second catalogue — the second table of the law: murders, sorceries (φάρμακα), immorality, thefts
Analysis. Revelation 9 is Semitic parataxis wearing two textures, and the page shows both. In the narrative frames (vv. 1–6, 13–18, 20–21) nearly everything is flush-left purple — καί … καί … καί, one event per line — and the few indented lines are precisely where heaven's control shows: the passive chain ἐδόθη / ἐρρέθη / ἐδόθη (vv. 1–5) hangs its ἵνα-content lines beneath it, twice in the Apocalypse's signature ἵνα + future indicative (ἀδικήσουσιν v. 4, βασανισθήσονται v. 5; again προσκυνήσουσιν v. 20), with the εἰ μή exception and the οἵτινες relative stepping down to the unsealed. In the monster-portraits (vv. 7–11, 17, 19) the texture flips to verbless comparison columns: dashed ind-lines stacked flush left, each a ὡς- or ὅμοιος-predication (horses, crowns, faces, hair, teeth, breastplates, wings, tails; then lions' heads), so the portrait reads as a litany rather than a narrative. Interpretive choices the layout takes a side on: the ἵνα of v. 15 is hung on ἡτοιμασμένοι (prepared in order to kill), not on ἐλύθησαν; ἐκ τοῦ πυρός in v. 18 is a modifier specifying τῶν τριῶν πληγῶν; the two γάρ clauses of v. 19 are stacked as ground and ground-of-the-ground beneath ἀπεκτάνθησαν, with nominative ἔχουσαι attached to αἱ οὐραί; the ὅταν of v. 5 leans back on the scorpion comparison and so is anchored; and v. 20's ἵνα μὴ προσκυνήσουσιν is read as result-tinged purpose — 'so as to stop worshiping' — with the idol catalogue given its own dashed object column.