Revelation 9:19

19 Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.

Revelation 9:19 Meaning and Commentary

Revelation 9:19

For their power is in their mouth
In what proceeded out of their mouth, or seethed to do so; in their guns, and what came out of them:

and in their tails;
which may design their foot soldiers, which were as the tail to their horse, and who sometimes did great service; or their way of fighting when they fled, by casting up arrows into the air, which would fall upon the heads and horses of those that pursued them; or their ambushments, by which they destroyed many; or their perfidious violation of treaties; or it may be their tails may intend the doctrine of Mahomet, the false prophet, who is the tail, ( Isaiah 9:15 ) ,

for their tails [were] like unto serpents;
crooked, crafty, poisonous, and, pernicious:

and had heads;
every tail had a head to it; which may be understood of the officers of the foot soldiers, or of the priests and teachers of the Mahometan religion:

and with them they do hurt;
with their guns, the power in their mouth, they did hurt to the bodies of men; and with their false doctrines, their tails, they did hurt to the souls of men; the Ethiopic version here adds, "five months"; which seems to be taken from ( Revelation 9:10 ) .

Revelation 9:19 In-Context

17 And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths.

18 One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses.

19 Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.

20 But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!

21 And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.