Revelation 9:3 — Locusts from the Abyss
Locusts emerge from the smoke of the opened abyss and are granted power resembling that of earthly scorpions.
Scripture
3And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
What this passage means
The verse depicts locusts issuing from the smoke of the abyss that the star-angel opened in the preceding verses. The locusts are not described as ordinary insects; they are beings released into the visible world from a realm previously sealed away, and the smoke itself functions as the medium through which they emerge.
Their power is explicitly compared to that of scorpions of the earth. The wording, "as the scorpions of the earth have power," grounds the comparison in a creature the original audience would recognize as dangerous yet non-lethal in ordinary experience, which shapes how the following verses describe their tormenting rather than killing function.
The passive voice — "power was given them" — marks the authority as delegated. The locusts do not act on their own initiative; what they can do is granted to them, and the surrounding passage makes clear that the scope of that authority is restricted (vv. 4–5). This frames the scene as one of permitted, bounded judgment rather than unrestrained destruction.
Context
Revelation 9 opens the fifth of the seven trumpet judgments. A star fallen from heaven is given the key to the abyss, opens it, and smoke rises like that of a great furnace, darkening sun and air (vv. 1–2). From that smoke the locusts of verse 3 emerge, and the chapter then details their appearance, their limited target (only the unsealed, vv. 4–5), the duration of their torment, and the identity of their king (v. 11), before verse 12 marks the first of three woes as past.
The rest of the chapter shows the escalation pattern characteristic of the trumpet sequence: the sixth trumpet releases bound angels at the Euphrates, and a third of mankind is killed (vv. 13–19). Yet even after this, the chapter closes by noting that the remaining people "repented not" of idolatry, murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft (vv. 20–21), so the judgment-portrait in verse 3 sits within a sequence whose stated purpose includes calling the unrepentant to recognize their deeds.
Common questions
Why are these called locusts if they behave like scorpions?
The passage itself never calls them ordinary locusts. John names them locusts as the starting image (v. 3), then immediately layers scorpion-comparisons onto them. The combined picture is a hybrid creature, and the locust label carries forward into the horse-like, crowned description in verse 7.
Who gave the locusts their power?
The text only says "power was given them" without naming the giver. The surrounding context places this giving within the fifth trumpet's opened abyss scene and within a series of judgments whose scope is later shown to be restricted (vv. 4–5), so the grammar presents the authority as granted rather than self-originated.
Does this verse describe literal insects?
The passage provides no internal indication that readers should identify the creatures as ordinary entomological locusts. They emerge from the abyss, are ruled by the angel of the abyss named Abaddon/Apollyon (v. 11), and are given bounded authority over a specific human target — features that the text itself distinguishes from a natural swarm.