Revelation 9:3-12

Hebrew has a number of different names for the locust which reveal its destructive power. It is called gazam ( Hebrew #1501 ), the lopper or the shearer, which describes how it shears all living vegetation from the earth; it is called 'arbeh ( Hebrew #697 ), the swarmer, which describes the immensity of its numbers; it is called hasil, the finisher, which describes the devastation it causes; it is called caal'am ( Hebrew #5556 ), the swallower or the annihilator; it is called hargol (compare Hebrew #7270 ), the galloper, which describes its rapid progress over the land; it is called tslatsal ( Hebrew #6767 ), the creaker, which describes the sound it makes.

It is not the vegetation of the earth which they are to attack; in fact they are forbidden to do that ( Revelation 9:4 ); their attack is to be launched against the men who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads.

The ordinary locust is devastating to vegetation but not harmful to human beings; but the demonic locust is to have the sting of a scorpion, one of the scourges of Palestine. In shape the scorpion is like a small lobster, with lobster-like claws to clutch its prey. It has a long tail, which curves up over its back and over its head; at the end of the tail there is a curved claw; with this claw the scorpion strikes and it secretes poison as the blow is delivered. The scorpion can be up to six inches in length; it swarms in crannies in walls and literally under almost every stone. Campers tell us that every stone must be lifted when a tent is pitched lest a scorpion be beneath it. Its sting is worse than the sting of a hornet; it is not necessarily fatal, but it can kill. The demonic locusts have the power of scorpions added to them.

Their attack is to last for five months. The explanation of the five months is almost probably that the life-span of a locust from birth, through the larva stage, to death is five months. It is as if we might say that one generation of locusts is being launched upon the earth.

Such will be the suffering caused by the locusts that men will long for death but will not be able to die. Job speaks of the supreme misery of those who long for death and it comes not ( Job 3:21 ); and Jeremiah speaks of the day when men will choose death rather than life ( Jeremiah 8:3 ). A Latin writer, Cornelius Gallus, says: "Worse than any wound is to wish to die and yet not be able to do so."

The king of the locusts is called in Hebrew Abaddon ( Hebrew #11 ; Greek #3 ) and in Greek Apollyon ( Greek #623 ). Abaddon ( Hebrew #11 ) is the Hebrew for destruction; it occurs oftenest in the phrases "death and destruction," and "hell and destruction" ( Job 26:6 ; Job 28:22 ; Job 31:12 ; Psalms 88:11 ; Proverbs 15:11 ; Proverbs 27:20 ). Apollyon ( Greek #623 ) is the present participle of the Greek verb to destroy and itself means The Destroyer. It is fitting that the king of the demonic locusts should be called Destruction and The Destroyer.