Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 9:5

"And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man." — Revelation 9:5 (ASV)

And to them . . .—Better, And it was given to them that they should not kill them (that is, those who had not the seal of God in their foreheads), but that they should be tortured five months.

The general period of a locust plague is about five months: “as the natural locusts commit their ravages only for five months, so the ravages of these symbolical ones will be only for a short period” (Stuart). Their power is to inflict torment, and not death. The next verse tells us that men would consider death preferable to this torment, but the relief of the grave is denied them.

And their torment . . .—Literally, and the torture of them (that is, the torture inflicted by them) is as the torture of a scorpion when it has stricken a man. The wound of a scorpion causes intense suffering: we have in it the symbol of the malicious cruelty of the merciless.

The emblem is used in Ezekiel: the rebellious and malicious opponents of the prophet being compared to scorpions (Ezekiel 2:6). We may compare the similar imagery of the bee for the Assyrian power (Isaiah 7:18), and the Psalmist’s complaint that his enemies gathered around him like bees—a swarm, irritating him with wing and sting. The tenth verse tells us the way in which the injury was inflicted: there were stings in their tails.