9:3 locusts. These are obviously not actual locusts, for they will attack only “unsealed men” and not the vegetation (Revelation 9:4). To John, however, they could only be compared to swarms of locusts. No man has ever seen such terrifying insects before or since, with the speed of war horses, the teeth of lions, and the stings of scorpions, yet with faces and armor like soldiers and hair like women (Revelation 9:7-10). Demons had long had an obsessive desire for physical bodies (note Genesis 6:2; Luke 8:30,32), so God will give them, for this brief time, bodies appropriate to their true character, allowing them to exercise His judgment on the still-rebellious men.