Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 9:10

"And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months." — Revelation 9:10 (ASV)

And they had tails . . .—It is better to read, And they have tails like to scorpions, and stings, and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months. In this verse, the secret of their power is mentioned: they have tails like scorpions’ tails, and stings which wound and so cause agony to men. Concerning the period of five months, see Revelation 9:5.

In the exposition of this passage, it is utterly futile to look for features of the ordinary natural locust corresponding to the several particulars set forth by the sacred seer; this is admitted even by those who seem anxious to find such counterparts. “We must regard the comparison as rather belonging to the supernatural portion of our description.” The rule is a good one.

Like the description of the Divine Presence in Revelation 4:0, most of the visions of the book cannot be pictorially realised without incongruities that would be grotesque and profane. Nor should we be surprised by this, since the principles and truths are the main points for the writer. This general rule must be kept in mind if we are to avoid the danger of dwelling too much on the significance of details.

We will not find even the suggestive basis of the details in this description in the ordinary locust. The smoke rises from the pit of the abyss; the sky is darkened, and out of the smoke emerges the pitchy cloud of locusts. The seer then adds certain characteristics of this locust plague, partly drawn from the earlier prophets, but, as is his custom, with some original additions. They are locusts, yet they possess the malice of scorpions. They advance like horse-soldiers to battle; they wear crowns; they bear a resemblance to men; there is also something womanlike in their appearance; and in their voracity, they are like lions.

The demands of the symbolism are quite beyond the features of the ordinary locust. The sacred writer shows us a plague in which devastation, malice, kinglike authority, intelligence, seductiveness, fierceness, and strength converge under one directing spirit to torment men.

Some parts may be purely graphic, as Alford says, but surely the vision shows us a great symbolical army: as multitudinous as locusts, as malicious as scorpions, ruling as kings, as intelligent as men, as wily as womanhood, as bold and fierce as lions, and as irresistible as those clad in iron armour. The symbolism, of course, must not be pressed too closely, but its meaning must be allowed to widen as new elements are added, especially when those elements are not suggested by anything in the locust itself but are additions clearly designed to give force to the symbol employed.

The locust-like army has characteristics that are partly human, partly diabolical, partly civilised, and partly barbarous. They have been variously interpreted: the historical school has seen in them the Saracens under Mohammed, who gave them a religion that was “essentially a military system.” Others are inclined to refer them to “the hordes of Goths and others whose unkempt locks and savage ferocity” resemble this locust host.

There is good ground for taking the vision to foreshadow the hosts of a fierce invading army. Even those who believe that Joel’s prophecy foretold a plague of literal locusts still acknowledge that these “may in a subsidiary manner” represent “the northern, or Assyrian enemies of Judah” (Introduction to Joel, Speaker’s Commentary).

But, as the writer there says, these were “themselves types of still future scourges.” So we may see here a vision that neither the history of the Zealots, nor that of Gothic hordes, nor of Saracens, has exhausted. Instead, it is one that draws our thoughts mainly to its spiritual and moral significance.

This vision teaches us that in the history of advancing truth, times will come when confused ideas will obscure simple truth and right. Out of that darkness will emerge strange and mongrel teachings—possessing a certain enforced unity but lacking moral harmony—a medley of fair and hideous, reasonable and barbarous, dignified and debased, which will enslave and torment humankind.

The outcome of these teachings is often war and tyrannical oppression. But the sacred seer teaches us distinctly that those who hold fast to the seal of God are those who cannot be injured, for he would have us remember that the true sting of false conceptions lies not in the havoc of open war, but in the wounded soul and conscience.

It is also relevant to note (as one example) that the power of Mohammed lay more in a divided and debased Christendom than in his own creed or sword; the smoke of ill-regulated opinions and erroneous teachings preceded the scourge.

Here, as in other parts of the book, we may note that subtle, plausible errors pave the way for dire troubles and often sanguinary revolutions. Falsehoods and false worships that have been spread throughout the world become “the forerunners and foretellers of a conflict between the powers of good and evil.” Yet, as the trumpet sounds, we know that every battle is a step towards the end of a victorious war.