Clarke's Bible Commentary - Revelation 9:19
Verse 19. Their power is in their mouth] From these the destructive balls are projected; and in their tails, the breech where the charge of gunpowder is lodged. Their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads] If cannons are intended, the description, though allegorical, is plain enough; for brass ordnance especially are frequently thus ornamented, both at their muzzles and at their breech.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 19. For their power is in their mouth , etc.] In what proceeded out of their mouth, or seethed to do so; in their guns, and what came out of them: and in their tails ; which may design their foot soldiers, which were as the tail to their horse, and who sometimes did great service; or their way of fighting when they fled, by casting up arrows into the air, which would fall upon the heads and horses of those that pursued them; or their ambushments, by which they destroyed many; or their perfidious violation of treaties; or it may be their tails may intend the doctrine of Mahomet, the false prophet, who is the tail, ( Isaiah 9:15), for their tails [were] like unto serpents ; crooked, crafty, poisonous, and, pernicious: and had heads ; every tail had a head to it; which may be understood of the officers of the foot soldiers, or of the priests and teachers of the Mahometan religion: and with them they do hurt ; with their guns, the power in their mouth, they did hurt to the bodies of men; and with their false doctrines, their tails, they did hurt to the souls of men; the Ethiopic version here adds, five months; which seems to be taken from ( Revelation 9:10).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-21 - The sixth angel sounded, and here the power of the Turks seems the subject. Their time is limited. They not only slew in war, but brough a poisonous and ruinous religion. The antichristian generation repente not under these dreadful judgments. From this sixth trumpet learn tha God can make one enemy of the church a scourge and a plague to another The idolatry in the remains of the eastern church and elsewhere, an the sins of professed Christians, render this prophecy and it fulfilment more wonderful. And the attentive reader of Scripture an history, may find his faith and hope strengthened by events, which i other respects fill his heart with anguish and his eyes with tears while he sees that men who escape these plagues, repent not of their evil works, but go on with idolatries, wickedness, and cruelty, til wrath comes upon them to the utmost __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
{1: αι 3588 γαρ 1063 εξουσιαι 1849 } {2: η 3588 γαρ 1063 εξουσια 1849 } αυτων 846 εν 1722 τω 3588 στοματι 4750 αυτων 846 {1: εισιν 1526 5748 } {2: εστιν 2076 5748 και 2532 εν 1722 ταις 3588 ουραις 3769 αυτων 846 } αι 3588 γαρ 1063 ουραι 3769 αυτων 846 ομοιαι 3664 οφεσιν 3789 εχουσαι 2192 5723 κεφαλας 2776 και 2532 εν 1722 αυταις 846 αδικουσιν 91 5719
Vincent's NT Word Studies
19. Their power (exousiai autwn). Read ejxousia twn ippwn the power of the horses.
Like unto serpents. "Long, smooth, subtle, clasping their victim in an embrace from which he cannot escape" (Milligan). As one of the innumerable fantasies of Apocalyptic exposition may be cited that of Elliott ("Horsae Apocalypticae") who finds a reference to the horse tails, the symbols of authority of the Turkish pashas.
