Locusts upon the earth: “ And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power"--9:3. In Bible times the word locust was applied as widely and as loosely, it seems, as the word worm in our various uses. But in scripture apocalypses, both Old and New, the reference is to a large and vile insect of such multiplicity and voracity as to be a dreaded source of scourge. These insects borne by the wind in swift swarms hundreds of miles were known to the people of Palestine as “ burners of the land,” a phrase derived from the literal meaning of “ locust.” It was their nature to be together, flying in vast numbers, spoiling the grain, infecting the part they did not eat, and poisoning the very air through which they swarmed. A scourge of locusts ended with the decomposition of several millions of the vile things, and resulted in pestilence that afflicted the land, with heavy death toll. (Joe 2:20) One historical example is on record as occurring 125 B.C., when the swarms were driven by strong winds into the sea, and washed back by the tide in such vast numbers as to cause a stench and a plague from which several thousand people died in the countries of Libya, Cyrene and Egypt. From the time of Moses they were the instruments of divine judgment as in Exodus 10:4-15; Deuteronomy 28:38-42; 1 Kings 8:37. The prophet Joel makes this locust the figurative instrument of fearful visitation in his vivid description of the devastating march of the Assyrian armies through the land. (Joe 2:9-11.) It is this symbolic locust, swarming from the smoke of the abyss as a scourge “ upon the earth,” that is employed in the vision here, to signify the woe being pronounced by the angel of the fifth trumpet upon Jerusalem and the land of the Jews. By the same symbol Joel described the invading armies of Israel's Old Testament history (Joe 1:4-6)--a striking parallel. Unto them was given power as the scorpions of earth: The scorpion is described as a small venomous reptile (Deuteronomy 8:15) having a bladder full of poison. Its anatomical description gives it two eyes in its mid-head, and another two eyes toward its extremity; with two arms like claws, eight legs with six talons each; a long tail like a string of beads, with two stingers full of poison, which it squirts into the object of its sting. This creature is used in the scripture figuratively to denote the wicked who torment the good. (Ezekiel 2:6) Jesus used it as a figure in promising his disciples power over every evil thing or agent that Satan could employ to their hurt (Luke 10:19). In the present vision of chapter 9 the locusts from the abyss were “ given” the power of the scorpions of the earth--signifying the affiliation of all the evil forces of the infernal underworld to be personified in the characters of wicked rulers.