These are demons, fallen angels whom God had committed to “chains of gloomy darkness” (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6), now released from the abyss. Like locusts these demons are beyond counting (compare the number of good angels mentioned in Revelation 5:11), like locusts they darken the sky like a cloud of smoke, like locusts you are helpless in the face of them, and like locusts they get into every corner of life to destroy the good. Like scorpions they torment people cruelly (see also Mark 5:3–5; Luke 8:29).
5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.