The last three trumpets are the three woes. Revelation 8:13 says, "And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining sounds of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to trumpet." The three woes will be the greatest, severest, and most intensified plagues. In the first four trumpets, man is not yet touched directly. God's judgment only touches the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun, moon, and stars, the heavenly bodies. But beginning with the fifth trumpet, God's judgment touches man directly.
The fifth trumpet is the first woe as judgment on men—Satan and Antichrist collaborating to torment men (Rev. 9:1). A star out of heaven fell to the earth. The star refers to Satan, who will be cast down from heaven to earth. Revelation 9:1 and 12:9 show that Satan will be cast down to the earth from the heavens as a star. To him was given the key of the shaft of the abyss. The abyss is a bottomless pit. It is the dwelling place of the demons (Luke 8:31). Satan opened the shaft of the abyss, and after opening the shaft, smoke went up out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the shaft; and out of the smoke came forth locusts to the earth, and authority was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have authority, to torment men (they were not to injure the grass, any green thing, any tree, and men who have the seal of God on their forehead) for five months, but not to kill them. Revelation 9:6 says that "in those days men shall seek death and shall by no means find it; and they shall long to die, and death flees from them."
The locusts were like horses prepared for war; crowns like gold were on their heads, their faces were like faces of men, their hair was like the hair of women, their teeth were like the teeth of lions, their breastplates were like breastplates of iron, the sound of their wings was like that of the chariots of many horses rushing into battle, and they have stinging tails like scorpions, in which is their authority to injure men five months. This was already prophesied in Joel 2:4-5, 25 and 1:6. The locusts have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon (Rev. 9:1-11). The angel of the abyss is the beast, Antichrist, who will come out of the pit of the abyss (Rev. 11:7; 17:8). Abaddon means destruction, and Apollyon means destroyer. Antichrist is a destroyer who brings in nothing but destruction.
In the fifth trumpet, Satan as a star falls to the earth, and Antichrist as the king over the army of locusts torments people for five months. This is a collaborating work. Satan and Antichrist are working together to torment men by these locusts. The locusts here are not like the locusts in Exodus 10:12-15, because they have tails like scorpions, and stings, and they injure men (Rev. 9:10). They must be demon-possessed ones, because they come out of the smoke which issues from the dwelling place of the demons (Rev. 9:2-3).