John had used the word “like” several times in the vision of the Son of Man (see Revelation 1:14–15), because human words could not adequately capture the divine. The same is true at the opposite end of the spectrum. John has a hard time finding fitting human words to describe the grotesqueness and hideousness of the demonic.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,