Revelation 9:4-6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And it was commanded that they should not hurt the grass, &c. This verse demonstrates that they were not natural, but symbolical locusts. The like injunctions were given to the Arabian officers and soldiers. When Yezid was marching with the army to invade Syria, Abubeker charged him with this among other orders: “Destroy no palm- trees, nor burn any fields of corn; cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat.” Their commission is to hurt only those men who had not the seal of God in their foreheads That is, those who were not the true servants of God, but were corrupt and idolatrous Christians. Now from history it appears evidently, that in those countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, where the Saracens extended their conquests, the Christians were generally guilty of idolatry in the worshipping of saints, if not of images; and it was the pretence of Mohammed and his followers to chastise them for it, and to re-establish the unity of the Godhead. The parts which remained the freest from the general infection were Savoy, Piedmont, and the southern parts of France, which were afterward the nurseries and habitations of the Waldenses and Albigenses; and it is very memorable that when the Saracens approached these parts, they were defeated with great slaughter by the famous Charles Martel, in several engagements. To them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented, &c. As the Saracens were to hurt only the corrupt and idolatrous Christians, so these they were not to kill, but only to torment, and should bring such calamities upon the earth, as should make men weary of their lives. Not that it could be supposed that the Saracens would not kill many thousands in their incursions. On the contrary, their angel (Rev 9:11) hath the name of the destroyer. They might kill them as individuals, but still they should not kill them as a political body, as a state, or empire. They might greatly harass and torment both the Greek and the Latin churches, but they should not utterly extirpate the one or the other. They besieged Constantinople, and even plundered Rome, but they could not make themselves masters of either of those capital cities. The Greek empire suffered most from them, as it lay nearest to them. They dismembered it of Syria and Egypt, and some other of its best and richest provinces; but they were never able to subdue and conquer the whole. As often as they besieged Constantinople, they were repulsed and defeated. They attempted it in the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, A.D. 672; but their men and ships were miserably destroyed by the sea-fire invented by Callinicus, and after seven years fruitless pains they were compelled to raise the siege, and to conclude a peace. They attempted it again in the reign of Leo Isauricus, A.D. 718; but they were forced to desist by famine and pestilence, and losses of various kinds. In this attempt they exceeded their commission, and therefore they were not crowned with their usual success. The taking of this city, and the putting an end to this empire, was a work reserved for another power, as we shall see under the next trumpet.