By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
This verse comes from one of the most intense sections of Revelation, a book written in symbolic, visionary language to encourage Christians who were being persecuted under the Roman Empire in the first century. The author, John, describes a series of catastrophic events called 'trumpet judgments.' In this vision, terrifying horse-like creatures breathe out fire, smoke, and sulfur — imagery borrowed from ancient warfare and Old Testament descriptions of divine wrath. 'A third of mankind' is most likely a symbolic figure representing enormous but not total devastation, signaling a severe warning rather than the final end. John's original readers would have recognized these images as a declaration that no earthly empire — not even Rome — holds ultimate power.
God, I won't pretend this passage is easy. The world holds real devastation, and I don't always understand why you allow it. Help me trust that you see every wound, every loss, every moment of destruction — and that none of it escapes your awareness or your love. Hold close the people I know who are in the middle of their own fire right now. Amen.
There's a reason most of us skip Revelation 9. It's nightmare fuel — fire, smoke, sulfur, a third of humanity wiped out. It doesn't read like something you'd write on a sticky note above your bathroom mirror. And yet John didn't write this to traumatize his readers. He wrote it to believers who were being tortured and exiled for their faith, who needed to hear something true about the darkness surrounding them: the suffering is real, but it is not the final word. Even judgment, in John's vision, exists inside a story that is heading somewhere. What do you do with a verse like this on an ordinary Thursday? Maybe you don't. But you can let it be honest with you. The world holds genuine destruction — addiction that hollows out families, violence that scars entire communities, systems that grind people into the ground. Revelation doesn't paper over that. It stares at it unflinchingly. And tucked inside the horror is a strange kind of anchor: God sees all of it. Nothing is hidden from him. The chaos you're living in, the damage done around you — none of it exists outside his awareness. That's not a comfortable thought, but it's a true one.
What is Revelation actually trying to communicate through images like fire, smoke, and sulfur — and why might early Christians under Roman persecution have found this passage encouraging rather than terrifying?
When you encounter a frightening or disturbing passage in the Bible, what is your instinct — to skip it, explain it away, or sit with it? What might you be missing by avoiding it?
Does the idea that God permits catastrophic suffering as part of a larger unfolding plan comfort you, disturb you, or both? Where does the tension live for you?
How does your faith — or your uncertainty — affect the way you show up for people around you who are in the middle of real destruction: addiction, grief, trauma, loss?
Is there an area of your life where you've been avoiding the honest acknowledgment that something is broken? What would it look like to name it plainly before God this week?
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Revelation 8:7
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Revelation 14:10
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
Revelation 9:17
A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came from the mouths of the horses.
AMP
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
ESV
A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.
NASB
A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.
NIV
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.
NKJV
One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues — by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses.
NLT
With these three weapons—fire and smoke and brimstone—they killed a third of the human race.
MSG