“And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.”
They were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them; their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it strikes a person — the locusts' mission is torture (basanizo), not death, for five months (duration suggesting divine limitation). The suffering inflicted mirrors scorpion-sting pain—agony without relief. The limitation to torment rather than death suggests divine mercy restraining evil.
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