In Revelation 8:7–12, four of the seven angels had already blown their trumpets, resulting in widespread devastation and death on the earth through natural phenomena. The blowing of the fifth trumpet had been delayed, allowing for the cry from the eagle (Revelation 8:13), announcing a triple “woe” upon the earth when the next three angels would blow their trumpets. In Revelation 9:1–12 we read the account of what happened when the first of the final three angels (the fifth one) blew his trumpet and so brought the first “woe” upon the earth. The present passage introduces the reader to the horrors of the second “woe” as the sixth angel blew his trumpet. As with the blowing of the previous five trumpets, this sixth trumpet occurs also as consequence of the prayers of the saints as described in Revelation 8:1–5.
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God,