What does Revelation 9:3 mean?

This verse reports that "locusts" emerge from the billowing smoke that arises from the bottomless pit. Later verses will expand this description, showing that these creatures only bear resemblance to insects. Some interpreters even suggest that John might have seen military machines from the future.

John would have been familiar with a plague of locusts. These voracious insects often troubled the Middle East. Sometimes clouds of locusts were so dense that they blotted out the sun and covered so much of the land that scarcely a square inch was untouched. Exodus 10:12–20 identifies the eighth plague the Lord imposed on Egypt in the time of Moses as a plague of locusts. The swarm of locusts was so thick that it covered the entire land of Egypt and darkened it. When the locusts had eaten all the vegetation, not a green thing remained.

However, the locusts John saw were far different from the ordinary kind. As this verse states, they received "power like the power of scorpions." The most potent ability of a scorpion is its sting: painful with venom that inflames the nerves. The ill-effects of the sting may last for days. This passage will continue to explain the terrible effects of these demonic creatures.