Bible Strands
Revelation 9:10
They had tails with stingers like scorpions, which had the power to injure people for five months.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the physical features of the locust-like creatures emerging during the fifth trumpet judgment. The account records their specific anatomy and operational limits before introducing their commander.
The words — οὐρὰς (ouras) = tails, κέντρα (kentra) = stingers, and σκορπίοις (skorpiois) = scorpions. The literal sense identifies the appendages as possessing sharp points that function like the stingers of earthly scorpions.
The thread — The five-month timeframe repeats Revelation 9:5, which caps their torment. The scorpion comparison reinforces Revelation 9:3, which grants them scorpion-like power, while Revelation 9:19 distinguishes other beasts by describing their tails as snakes with heads.
Why it lands — The text defines the injury as a bounded period of pain rather than immediate death. It requires the reader to acknowledge that the judgment operates under strict temporal constraints.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
Cross-references
- Revelation 9:5 The locusts were not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the stinging of a scorpion.
- Revelation 9:3 And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.
- Revelation 9:19 For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.