SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:9
Y tenían corazas como corazas de hierro; y el estruendo de sus alas, como el ruido de carros, que con muchos caballos corren a la batalla.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Revelation 9:9
Verse 9. They had breastplates-of iron] They seemed to be invulnerable, for no force availed against them. The sound of their wings] Their hanging weapons and military trappings, with the clang of their shields and swords when they make their fierce onsets. This simile is borrowed from Joel ii. 5-7.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron , etc.] Alluding to the hard skin of the locusts, with which nature has fenced it f280 ; (see Joel 2:8); and denotes the armour with which the Saracens were accoutred: and if to be understood of the western locusts, the hardness of their hearts, their seared consciences, or their protection by the princes of the earth, the many privileges they are possessed of, the laws made in their favour, and for their security; their breastplates were not breastplates of righteousness, faith, and love, nor in defence of truth, but against it. And some think the iron colour may denote the colour of their habit, their black garments: and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle ; (see Joel 2:5). The sound of locusts, when they fly or march in large companies, is very great. Pliny says f281 , they make such a noise with their wings, when they fly, that they have been thought to have been other winged creatures; hence a locust, in Hebrew, is sometimes called lxlx , the same name that is given to the high sounding cymbal.
The sound of them is said to have been heard six miles f282 . Aristotle f283 ascribes it to the rubbing of their legs or thighs one against another; and so the Ethiopic version here renders it, the sound of their feet: this may be expressive of the swift and rapid incursions of the Saracens, and of the dreadful alarms to the nations which their invasions made; and may be applied to the noisy declamations, anathemas, excommunications, and interdicts of the Romish clergy.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-12 - Upon sounding the fifth trumpet, a star fell from heaven to the earth Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by thi star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ. On the opening of the bottomles pit, there arose a great smoke. The devil carries on his designs be blinding the eyes of men, by putting out light and knowledge, an promoting ignorance and error. Out of this smoke there came a swarm of locusts, emblems of the devil's agents, who promote superstition idolatry, error, and cruelty. The trees and the grass, the tru believers, whether young or more advanced, should be untouched. But secret poison and infection in the soul, should rob many others of purity, and afterwards of peace. The locusts had no power to hurt thos who had the seal of God. God's all-powerful, distinguishing grace wil keep his people from total and final apostacy. The power is limited to a short season; but it would be very sharp. In such events the faithfu share the common calamity, but from the pestilence of error they migh and would be safe. We collect from Scripture, that such errors were to try and prove the Christians, 1Co 11:19. And early writers plainl refer this to the first great host of corrupters who overspread the Christian church.
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 ειχον 2192 5707 θωρακας 2382 ως 5613 θωρακας 2382 σιδηρους 4603 και 2532 η 3588 φωνη 5456 των 3588 πτερυγων 4420 αυτων 846 ως 5613 φωνη 5456 αρματων 716 ιππων 2462 πολλων 4183 τρεχοντων 5143 5723 εις 1519 πολεμον 4171
Vincent's NT Word Studies
9. Breastplates. The breast of the locust resembles the plates of a horse's armor.
Sound of their wings. Olivier, a French writer, says: "It in difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain." For a graphic description of their numbers and ravages, see Thomson, "Land and Book, Central Palestine and Phoenicia," 295-302.
Of chariots of many horses. That is, of many-horsed chariots. The Rev., by the insertion of a comma, apparently takes the two clauses as parallel: the sound of chariots, (the sound) of many horses.
Tails like unto scorpions. The comparison with the insect as it exists in nature fails here, though Smith's "Bible Dictionary" gives a picture of a species of locust, the Acridium Lineola, a species commonly sold for food in the markets of Bagdad, which has a sting in the tail.
Stings (kentra). Originally any sharp point. A goad. See on pricks, Acts xxvi. 14. Plato uses it of the peg of a top ("Republic," 436). Herodotus of an instrument of torture. Democedes, the Crotoniat physician, having denied his knowledge of medicine to Darius, Darius bade his attendants "bring the scourges and pricking-irons kentra) (3, 30) Sophocles of the buckle-tongues with which Oedipus put out his eyes.
"Woe, woe, and woe again! How through me darts the throb these clasps (kentrwn). have caused." "Oedipus Tyrannas," 1318.
Of the spur of a cock, the quill of a porcupine, and the stings of insects. For the A.V., there were stings in their tails, read as Rev., and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt.
