They were told to harm people, using, of course, their “power like the power of scorpions.” (Revelation 9:3) This again indicates that these locusts are not literal locusts, nor a cross between locusts and scorpions, but something altogether different—demonic.
4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.