³ Then, out of that smoke, there appeared locusts on the earth, and they were given authority like the authority of scorpions on the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass on the earth, nor any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were given instructions not to kill them, but to torture them for five months, and their torture was like the torture inflicted by the sting of a scorpion.