Revelation 9:19

19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads, and with them they cause hurt.

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 thus I saw the horses in the vision, and they that sat on them had breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18 By these three was a third part of men killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads, and with them they cause hurt.

20 And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver, and brass and stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;

21 neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.