Revelation 9:10

Complete Jewish Bible

They had tails like those of scorpions, with stings; and in their tails was their power to hurt people for five months.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months.

King James Version (1611)
And they had tayles like vnto Scorpions, and there were stings in their tayles: and their power was to hurt men fiue moneths.

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.

New American Standard Bible
They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months.

New Century Version
The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions, and in their tails was their power to hurt people for five months.

English Standard Version
They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.

Berean Standard Bible
They had tails with stingers like scorpions, which had the power to injure people for five months.

Contemporary English Version
Their tails were like a scorpion's tail with a stinger that had the power to hurt someone for five months.

Darby Translation
and they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and their power [was] in their tails to hurt men five months.

Easy-to-Read Version
The locusts had tails with stingers like scorpions. The power they had to give people pain for five months was in their tails.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And they had tailes like vnto scorpions, and there were stings in their tailes, and their power was to hurt men fiue moneths.

George Lamsa Translation
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and they had power to hurt men five months.

Good News Translation
They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months.

Lexham English Bible
And they have tails similar in appearance to scorpions, and stings, and their power to injure people for five months is in their tails.

Literal Translation
And they have tails like scorpions, and their stings were in their tails; and their authority is to harm men five months.

Amplified Bible
They have tails like scorpions, and stingers; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months.

American Standard Version
And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months.

Bible in Basic English
And they have pointed tails like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to give men wounds for five months.

Hebrew Names Version
They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails is their power to harm men for five months.

International Standard Version
They had tails and stingers like scorpions, and they had the power to hurt people with their tails for five months.Revelation 9:5;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
And they had tails like those of scorpions, and stings; and in their tails they have power to hurt men five months.

Murdock Translation
And they had tails like those of scorpions, and stings; and with their tails they had the power of hurting men five months.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And they had tayles lyke vnto scorpions, and there were stynges in their tayles: and their power was to hurt men fiue monethes.

English Revised Version
And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months.

World English Bible
They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails is their power to harm men for five months.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And they have tails like scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their power is, to hurt men five months.

Weymouth's New Testament
They had tails like those of scorpions, and also stings; and in their tails lay their power of injuring mankind for five months.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thei hadden tailis lijk scorpiouns, and prickis weren in the tailis of hem; and the myyt of hem was to noye men fyue monethis.

Update Bible Version
And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months.

Webster's Bible Translation
And they had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power [was] to hurt men five months.

New English Translation
They have tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability to injure people for five months is in their tails.

New King James Version
They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

New Living Translation
They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.

New Life Bible
They had tails like a small animal that stings. The sting came from their tails. They were given power to hurt men for five months.

New Revised Standard
They have tails like scorpions, with stingers, and in their tails is their power to harm people for five months.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings, and, in their tails, is their licence to injure men five months.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they had tails like to scorpions: and there were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men, five months. And they had over them

Revised Standard Version
They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And they had tayles lyke vnto scorpions and there were stinges in their tayles. And their power was to hurt men v. monethes.

Young's Literal Translation
and they have tails like to scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their authority [is] to injure men five months;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And they had tayles lyke vnto scorpions, and there were stynges in their tayles. And their power was to hurt me fyue monethes.

Mace New Testament (1729)
they had stings in their tails like scorpions; and they had leave to molest men for five months with their stings.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Their tails were like scorpions with needles like swords, ready to inflict pain and suffering as quickly as a rattlesnake's strike. For five months they will ravage the lives of the unbranded.

Contextual Overview

¹ The fifth angel sounded his shofar; and I saw a star that had fallen out of heaven onto the earth, and he was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss. ² He opened the shaft of the Abyss, and there went up smoke from the shaft like the smoke of a huge furnace; the sun was darkened, and the sky too, by the smoke from the shaft. ³ Then out of the smoke onto the earth came locusts, and they were given power like the power scorpions have on earth. ⁴ They were instructed not to harm the grass on the earth, any green plant or any tree, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ The locusts were not allowed to kill them, only to inflict pain on them for five months; and the pain they caused was like the pain of a scorpion sting. ⁶ In those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. ⁷ Now these locusts looked like horses outfitted for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces. ⁸ They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. ⁹ Their chests were like iron breastplates, and the sound their wings made was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails like those of scorpions, with stings; and in their tails was their power to hurt people for five months.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

tails: Revelation 9:3, Revelation 9:5

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 10:11 - scorpions Luke 11:12 - a scorpion 1 Corinthians 15:55 - sting Revelation 9:15 - an hour Revelation 9:19 - in their tails Revelation 12:4 - his tail

Cross-References

Genesis 8:1
God remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down.

Genesis 9:1
God blessed Noach and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:5
I will certainly demand an accounting for the blood of your lives: I will demand it from every animal and from every human being. I will demand from every human being an accounting for the life of his fellow human being.

Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being will his own blood be shed; for God made human beings in his image.

Genesis 9:15
I will remember my covenant which is between myself and you and every living creature of any kind; and the water will never again become a flood to destroy all living beings.

Genesis 9:16
The rainbow will be in the cloud; so that when I look at it, I will remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of any kind on the earth."

Psalms 145:9
Adonai is good to all; his compassion rests on all his creatures.

Jonah 4:11
So shouldn't I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left — not to mention all the animals?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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;

:-,

:-. 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, Isaiah 9:15; with which both Mahomet, who set himself up for a prophet, and the Romish clergy, who set up their decrees and unwritten traditions above the word of God, have poisoned and destroyed multitudes of souls:

and their power [was] to hurt men five months;

Isaiah 9:15- :.

u Scriptores Arab.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 Revelation 9:7.

And there were stings in their tails - Like the stings of scorpions. See the notes on Revelation 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 Revelation 9:5. The word used here - ἀδικῆσαι adikēsai, rendered “to hurt” - is different from the word in Revelation 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 Revelation 9:5; (also Editor’s Preface).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Revelation 9:10. 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 Revelation 9:5-150 years.