Revelation 9 Passage

Explanation

9:2 "and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace"

John did not actually see smoke coming out of a furnace, but the smoke was so thick that it was described in this fashion.

9:7 "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle"

These locusts were NOT, NOT, NOT horses. Nor were they men riding on horses. John, having never seen a creature like the one he was seeing, described their overall shape as best as he could. Something that he was familiar with: LIKE a horse prepared for battle. Meaning, a creature with battle armor on.

9:7 "and on their heads as it were crowns like gold"

These locust creatures had a gold-colored object on their heads that resembled a crown of gold. They were not crowns of gold or turbans. It was something LIKE a crown of gold.

9:7 "and their faces as the faces of men.

These locust creatures had faces that looked LIKE the face of a man. They were NOT the faces of actual men, otherwise John would have said that they had the face of men, NOT "as" the face of men.

9:8 "And they had hair as the hair of women"

These locust creatures had hair that looked LIKE the hair of a woman. It was NOT the hair of actual women, otherwise John would have said that they had the hair of women, NOT "as" the hair of women.

9:8 "and their teeth were as the teeth of lions."

These locust creatures had teeth that looked LIKE the teeth of a lion. It was NOT the teeth of actual lions, otherwise John would have said that they had the teeth of lions, NOT "as" the teeth of lions.

9:9 "And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron"

These locust creatures had breastplates that looked LIKE a breastplate of iron. It was NOT actual iron, otherwise John would have said that they had iron breastplates, NOT "as" breastplates of iron.

9:9 "and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle."

These locust creatures had wings, no doubt about it. John was trying to describe the sound he heard in their wings, and the best description he could give was that they sounded like many chariot horses running by him. These were NOT military machines or helicopters. John was simply describing the sound he heard in their wings with something with which he was familiar.

9:10 "And they had tails like unto scorpions"

It's clear these locust creatures had tails. The closest thing in the natural John could relate what the tail looked like was the tail of a scorpion: long, flexible, and with painful stinging capability.