Revelation 9:10

Their power to harm men was for six months. This again suggests this life, where lies can prevail either to capture the useless or to torment the spiritually strong temporarily.

And they have tails like scorpions - That is, each tail is like a scorpion, not like the tail of a scorpion. To hurt the unsealed men five months - Five prophetic months; that is, seventy-nine common years So long did these calamities last.

And they had tails like unto scorpions,.... Locusts are said to have the tail of a serpent, and of the vipers of the earth (u); See Gill on Rev 9:3, Rev 9:

They had tails like unto scorpions - This may refer to the consequences of their victories. They infected the conquered with their pernicious doctrines. Their power was to hurt men five months - The locusts make their principal ravages during the five summer months. But probably these may be prophetic months, as above, in Rev 9:5 - 150 years.

tails like unto scorpions--like unto the tails of scorpions. and there were stings--There is no oldest manuscript for this reading. A, B, Aleph, Syriac, and Coptic read, "and (they have) stings: and in their tails (is) their power (literally, 'authority': authorized power) to hurt."

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And they had tails like unto scorpions - The fancy of an Arab now often discerns a resemblance between the tail of the locust and the scorpion. See the remark of Niebuhr, quoted in the notes on Rev 9:7. And there were stings in their tails - Like the stings of scorpions. See the notes on Rev 9:3. This made the locusts which appeared to John the more remarkable, for though the fancy may imagine a resemblance between the tail of a locust and a scorpion, yet the locusts have properly no sting. The only thing which they have resembling a sting is a hard bony subsubstance like a needle, with which the female punctures the bark and wood of trees in order to deposit her eggs. It has, however, no adaptation, like a sting, for conveying poison into a wound. These, however, appeared to be armed with stings properly so called. And their power was to hurt men - Not primarily to kill people, but to inflict on them various kinds of tortures. See the notes on Rev 9:5. The word used here - ἀδικῆσαι adikēsai, rendered “to hurt” - is different from the word in Rev 9:5 - βασανισθῶσιν basanisthōsin, rendered “should be tormented.” This word properly means “to do wrong, to do unjustly, to injure, to hurt”; and the two words would seem to convey the idea that they would produce distress by doing wrong to others, or by deeding unjustly with them. It does not appear that the wrong would be by inflicting bodily torments, but would be characterized by that injustice toward others which produces distress and anguish. Five months - See the notes on Rev 9:5; (also Editor’s Preface).