Revelation 9:5

5. Not kill As the war-demons (Revelation 9:18) would. These inflict agonies; agonies from which, indeed, natural death may naturally, in time, result: but it is not the work of these error-demons, as of the war-demons, to slaughter and slay.

Tormented For misery is the outflow of error and sin.

Five months A divine limitation again, based on the nature of the locust, whose ravages last usually about five months; that is, from May to September. And so temptation, error, and sin have not limitless control over all the life of humanity. Gospel truths take their turn of influence and offer. Even the smoke of the bottomless pit produces but twilight here, not total darkness.

Torment of a scorpion The wounds of a scorpion are not usually fatal unless they are neglected; but the poison is so acrid that it occasions great agony. Like to this are the images of the hornet, the bee, and the wasp. See the Old Testament, for example Deuteronomy 7:20; Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12; Deuteronomy 1:44.

Torments A frequent word in the Greek in the Apocalypse. Its noun-form, βασανος , signifies the Libyan touchstone, by which the purity of metals was claimed to be tested. Thence the verb signified any examination of a thing by criticism, or of a person by torture. Thence it signifies any torment or suffering. In the New Testament it never signifies infliction on an inanimate object but once, Matthew 14:24, where it speaks of a ship as “tossed by the waves.” Our seer applies the term here to the sting of the locusts; to the torment of the people by the two witnesses, Revelation 11:10; to the pains of child-birth, Revelation 12:2; and to the fiery torment of the wicked, Revelation 14:10; Revelation 20:10.