And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Prepared unto battle - `war.' Note, Joel 2:4, where the resemblance of locusts to horses is traced: the plates of a horse armed for battle represent the outer shell of the locust.
Crowns - (Nahum 3:17.) Elliott, The turbans of Mohammedans. But how could turbans be "like gold"? The correspondences are:
(1) The Turks came from the Euphrates.
(2) Their cavalry was countless.
(3) The breastplates of fire answer to the rich colours (scarlet, blue, yellow) of the Ottoman attire.
(4) Out of the horses' mouths fire and smoke, the Turkish artillery.
(5) The Turkish standard, the horse tails.
(6) The period: an hour, day, month, year; 396 years, 118 days, the time between the going forth of Thogrul Beg, Jan. 18, 1057, and the fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453. The serpent-like stinging tails correspond to Mohammedanism supplanting Christianity. Alford, The head of the locusts actually ends in a crown-shaped fillet, resembling gold.
As the faces of men. "As" seems to imply the locusts do not mean men. Still they must be supernatural; for locusts do not sting men (Revelation 9:5).