They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
Upon the sounding of this trumpet, the things to be observed are, 1. A star falling from heaven to the earth. Some think this star represents some eminent bishop in the Christian church, some angel of the church; for, in the same way of speaking by which pastors are called stars, the church is called heaven; but who this is expositors do not agree.
Commenting on Revelation 9:1-12
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 9:5. And there were stings in their tails; either in the baser sort of them, the Saracens and Papists; or in their doctrines, the prophet being the tail, Isa 9:15; with which both Mahomet...
Verse 10. 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 . And there were stings in their tails. Like the stings of scorpions. .