9:4a

They were told: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. For example:

⌊God⌋ told them

the grass of the earth or any plant or tree: Grass, plants, and trees all grow on the earth. In some languages it is more natural to indicate that all these things grow on the earth. For example:

any grass, green plant, or tree on the earth (God’s Word)

Since people usually think of grass, plants, and trees as growing on the earth, it is more natural in some languages to omit the phrase of the earth. For example:

the grass or plants or trees (New Living Translation (2004))

9:4b

but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads: This clause indicates that God told the locusts to harm the people named here. In some languages it is more natural to repeat some of the words from 9:4a here. For example:

they could harm only the people who did not have the mark of God’s seal on their foreheads (Good News Translation)

those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads: Earlier, in 7:3–4, angels put God’s seal or mark on 144,000 people. The phrase here refers to the people without that seal or mark.

seal: This word refers to a mark put on the people. The mark is placed with the device called a “seal” (7:2b). What the mark looked like is not described. Other ways to translate this word are:

mark of ownership
-or-
owner’s symbol

See how you translated this word in 7:3.

General Comment on 9:4a–b

In some languages it is more natural to translate these instructions as a direct quote. For example:

They were told, “Do not harm the grass on the earth or any plant or tree. You may harm only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.