John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 9:6
And in those days men shall seek death ,.... Or desire to die, as Job did: and shall not find it ; or shall not die: and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them ; death will be preferred to a miserable life; it will be chosen rather than life, Jeremiah 8:3 . The ravages of the Saracens, their incursions, and the invasions by them, struck such terror into the inhabitants of divers parts of the empire, that they made death more eligible to them than life. read more
John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Revelation 9:5
And to them it was given that they should not kill them ,.... As the power of the locusts was limited with respect to the persons they should hurt, so with regard also to the mischief they should do; for even those whom they were suffered to annoy they might not kill, that is, utterly root out and destroy, so as that they were no more: and thus, though the Saracens killed great numbers in the eastern empire, by their frequent incursions and ravages, and made large conquests, yet they could... read more