Revelation 8:13: And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

The judgments of the first four trumpet angels will end in Revelation 8:12.¹ In the next verse, the words And I beheld indicate the start of a new vision that John both saw and heard.² Since the judgments of the first four trumpet angels are designed to encourage people to repent,³ a short but discernable period will pass so the wicked have time to begin that process⁴ before the Three Woes begin.⁵

Many Bible translations identify the angel in this verse as an eagle.⁶ This has led some scholars to conclude that the Roman Empire is the object of this verse.⁷ However, John's vision of the Three Woes pertains to future judgments just before the Second Coming.⁸ The eagle flying through the midst of heaven⁹ presents a symbolic image of a bird of prey that is ready to dive upon its helpless victims.¹⁰ The loud voice of the eagle emphatically warns the wicked and unrepentant¹¹ inhabiters of the earth¹² that three deadly woes are about to fall upon them unless they repent.¹³

Woe, woe, woe is used to express the remarkable severity of calamities that will befall the wicked inhabitants of the earth¹⁴ when the fifth trumpet angel (i.e., First Woe), sixth trumpet angel (i.e., Second Woe), and seventh trumpet angel (i.e., Third Woe) each sound their trumpets.¹⁵ The Three Woes are three separate plagues, but they are naturally grouped together¹⁶ as were the first four trumpet angels.¹⁷ The Three Woes will have a cumulative¹⁸ and worsening effect¹⁹ until they bring about the final destruction and end of the wicked,²⁰ both physical and spiritual, at the Second Coming.²¹

The fifth trumpet angel unleashes the First Woe in Revelation 9:1-12.²² During this First Woe, evil spirits‒both unembodied and disembodied‒will be given great power to torment those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads from Revelation chapter 7.²³

The sixth trumpet angel is the harbinger of the Second Woe, which is the seven-year battle of Armageddon described in Revelation 9:13 to Revelation 11:14.²⁴ These verses include all of Revelation chapter 10, which describes the latter-day gathering of saints at Adam-ondi-Ahman at the midpoint of Armageddon.²⁵

The seventh trumpet angel will unleash the Third Woe, as described in Revelation chapters 15 to 16.²⁶ This third and final woe consists of seven bowls or Vial Plagues that will occur in rapid succession at the end of physical Armageddon.²⁷ The final cleansing of the earth of both wicked people²⁸ and wicked spirits²⁹ will occur during the seven Vials Plagues of the Third Woe as described by John in Revelation chapter 17 to Revelation 20:3.³⁰

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.... And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.