From the smoke that filled the air, locusts descended upon the earth. Huge swarms of locusts were not uncommon in that part of the world (see Exo 10.1-20 for the plague of locusts in Egypt), and the prophet Joel spoke of swarms of locusts as instruments of God’s wrath. In cultures where locusts do not exist but grasshoppers are known, one may say “grasshoppers.” However, in cultures where creatures like this are nonexistent, it may be necessary to borrow a word from English or some other major language and describe the creature in the glossary. A picture of a locust will also be helpful. In some parts of the world a cultural equivalent in jungle areas may be used; for example, “(large) leaf-eating insect.” However, the insect chosen should have the tendency to appear in large numbers or swarms, as locusts do.

They were given power: these creatures are under God’s control; the power they receive is the power to injure people—the kind of power that scorpions have, that is, to sting people. As in verse 10, power here means something more like “capacity,” “capability.” In languages that do not use the passive, translators may say, for example, “they received the ability” or “someone gave them the ability.”

Scorpions of the earth: scorpions are small creatures with eight legs and a long tail that has a poisonous sting; they can inflict very painful wounds, which are sometimes fatal. The added phrase of the earth seems to mean that these are actual scorpions, unlike the locusts, which are demonic beings (verses 7-11).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Locusts came down out of the smoke onto the earth, and they received the power to sting people, like that of scorpions.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .