After the first four trumpets had blasted, an eagle had appeared overhead, crying out his triple “woe” (Revelation 8:13) over earth’s inhabitants because of what would happen when the next three angels sounded their trumpets. The release of the demons in response to the blowing of the fifth angel represented “the first woe.” True to the meaning of the word “woe,” this release spelled disaster on earth (see Ezekiel 7:26). The blowing of the sixth and the seventh trumpet will introduce the next two woes.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.