What Does Revelation 9:5 Mean in the King James?
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse measures cruelty by the limit attached to it: scorpion-like torment is permitted, but death is withheld and the span is fixed at five months.
THE MEANING
This verse presents torment as real bodily pain, measured against a scorpion’s strike. It also states the limit plainly: the afflicted are not killed, and the torment runs for five months. The image holds both truths together, violent suffering and a boundary on what it can do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that whatever can cause pain has unlimited power: here torment is permitted, but killing is withheld and the duration is specified.
THE ROOT
βασανισθῶσιν
basanisthōsin
GROWS FROM
βασαν-
The βασαν- word family means torment or torture in New Testament usage; the related noun βάσανος can also mean a touchstone used to test metal.
“tormented” in this verse is basanisthōsin. The verb names imposed torment, and the noun βασανισμός repeats the same word family when the verse compares one torment with another. The touchstone sense belongs to the wider word history, but this verse directly describes affliction, not metaphorical testing.
ALSO GROWS
basanos: Touchstone; torment or torture
βάσανος
The related noun appears in the verse’s repeated word for torment, making the scorpion’s strike the measure of the inflicted pain.
basanistēs: Tormentor or torturer
βασανιστής
Matthew 18:34 uses this cognate for the people who impose torment, showing that the same word family names both the suffering and its agent.
THE PATTERN
Harmful power is shown with a stated boundary: the ordeal remains real, while its reach or duration is limited.
And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.THE THREAD
And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.The word translated torments in Matthew belongs to the same βασαν- family as Revelation’s word for being tormented. Matthew names afflictions brought to Jesus and says he heals them; the shared word connects the scenes without changing the violence Revelation describes.
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