Revelation 9:16: And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

The army of the horsemen refers to a literal army of mortal combatants¹ controlled by the horsemen.² The horsemen are evil spirit sons of perdition released with great power from the bottomless pit during the First Woe.³ Their worldwide power to torment people during the First Woe will be enhanced with a worldwide power to kill people when the four symbolic angels are loosed from the Euphrates River (or bottomless pit) at the start of the Second Woe.⁴ When this occurs, the evil spirits will influence this mortal army of the horsemen to slay the third part of men during the Second Woe.⁵

The figure of two hundred thousand thousand (200 million) visually describes a huge number of combatants.⁶ This immense army is literal,⁷ but John uses a symbolic number to describe them.⁸ His description means two legions of legions or two armies of armies.⁹ Several scholars translate this phrase as two myriads of myriads.¹⁰ The words express the idea that the two massive armies of Physical Armageddon¹¹ will be divided against themselves¹² as the wicked slay the wicked.¹³

In the King James Version of the Bible, and in other translations, John heard the number of them in the army.¹⁴ Some interpret this to mean that there were so many people in the army that they could not be counted.¹⁵ However, the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) changes this verse to say that John saw the number of them.¹⁶ In a modern world where seeing is believing,¹⁷ this small change reaffirms the future reality of the massive armies of armies that will fight each other to the death during the Second Woe of Physical Armageddon.¹⁸