Revelation 9:8

8 And they had heare as the heare of wemen. And their tethe were as the tethe of lyons.

Revelation 9:8 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 9:8

And they had hair, as the hair of women
Some locusts have smooth, others hairy heads F14: this fitly points at the Arabians or Saracens, who, as Pliny says F15, used to wear long hair without cutting it, and attired as women, and have their names also from women: they were called Hagarenes, from Hagar, Abraham's handmaid, by whom he had Ishmael, the father of these people; afterwards they took the name of Saracens, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, whose posterity they would be thought to be; though they may have the latter name, either from (qro) , to "rob" and "steal", with the Arabians, or from the same word, as it signifies to "comb", from the combing and plaiting: of their hair. This may also point at the effeminacy of the western locusts, the monks and friars, who dress more like women than men; and many of them claim the virgin Mary for their patroness; and may in general design the votaries of the church of Rome, who are under the vow of a monastic life, as those among the Jews, under a Nazarite's vow, wore long hair.

And their teeth were as [the teeth] of lions;
so in ( Joel 1:6 ) ; which may denote the ravages and devastations of the Saracens in the empire, robbing, pillaging, and destroying all they met with; and is applicable enough to the devouring jaws of the Romish clergy, their plundering the estates of men, their cruelties and barbarities exercised by their Inquisition Pliny says F16, that locusts will gnaw the doors of houses.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Gloss. in T. Bab. Cholin. fol. 65. 1.
F15 Hist. Nat. l. 6. c. 28.
F16 L. 11. c. 29.

Revelation 9:8 In-Context

6 And in those dayes shall men seke deeth and shall not fynde it and shall desyre to dye and deeth shall flye fro the.
7 And the similitude of the locustes was lyke vnto horses prepared vnto battayll and on their heddes were as it were crownes lyke vnto golde: and their faces were as it had bene the faces of men.
8 And they had heare as the heare of wemen. And their tethe were as the tethe of lyons.
9 And they had habbergions as it were habbergions of yron. And the sounde of their wynges was as the sounde of charettes when many horsses runne to gedder to battayle.
10 And they had tayles lyke vnto scorpions and there were stinges in their tayles. And their power was to hurt men v. monethes.
The Tyndale Bible is in the public domain.