Openbaring 9:8

8 En zij hadden haar als haar der vrouwen, en hun tanden waren als tanden van leeuwen.

Openbaring 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Openbaring 9:8 In-Context

6 En in die dagen zullen de mensen den dood zoeken, en zullen dien niet vinden; en zij zullen begeren te sterven, en de dood zal van hen vlieden.

7 En de gedaanten der sprinkhanen waren den paarden gelijk, die tot den oorlog bereid zijn; en op hun hoofden waren als kronen, het goud gelijk, en hun aangezichten als aangezichten van mensen.

8 En zij hadden haar als haar der vrouwen, en hun tanden waren als tanden van leeuwen.

9 En zij hadden borstwapenen als ijzeren borstwapenen; en het gedruis hunner vleugelen was als een gedruis der wagens, wanneer vele paarden naar den strijd lopen.

10 En zij hadden staarten den schorpioenen gelijk, en er waren angels in hun staarten; en hun macht was de mensen te beschadigen vijf maanden.