What Does Revelation 9:3 Mean?
And locusts come out of the smoke upon the earth, and to them is given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.THE KEY
The force that rises from the smoke is real, but its authority arrives as a grant.
THE MEANING
The locusts have real power, and that power is given to them; the same word describes the scorpions’ capacity. The vision lets the danger remain frightening while showing its authority as received, not self-originating.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that whatever terrifies you must hold ultimate power dissolves here: this verse names the locusts’ authority as something given.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσία
exousia
GROWS FROM
ἐξουσι-
exousi-
Authority, permission, or a right to act; by extension, the capacity to act.
Here, exousia (ἐξουσία, authority or power) carries the sense of an authority to act beneath the force of the image. The same word describes both the locusts’ granted power and the scorpions’ capacity, linking their menace to authority.
ALSO GROWS
exousiazō: To exercise authority or have power over.
ἐξουσιάζω
This verb shows the root in action: authority is something exercised, as the locusts’ given power is exercised in the scene.
exousiastēs: A person in authority; a ruler.
ἐξουσιαστής
This branch names the one who holds authority, drawing attention to the verse’s distinction between the power given and those who receive it.
ἐδόθη
edothē
GROWS FROM
δο- (do-), from δίδωμι (didōmi)
To give, grant, or place something in another’s possession.
The passive form ἐδόθη (edothē, was given) names a grant without naming its giver in this clause. The locusts’ authority is presented as received within the scene, not as something they originate for themselves.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: A giving or gift.
δόσις
This noun carries the act of giving into a thing bestowed, matching the verse’s presentation of power as received.
antididōmi: To give back, return, or repay.
ἀντιδίδωμι
The compound preserves the same giving root while showing that what is given can be passed back or returned.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents authority as something that can be granted to the one who exercises it.
Jesus answered, You would have no authority at all against me, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has a greater shortcoming.Look, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the strength of the enemy, and nothing will by any means injure you.And the LORD said to the Adversary, Look, all that he has is in your hand; only toward him do not stretch out your hand. So the Adversary went out from the face of the LORD.THE THREAD
Jesus answered, You would have no authority at all against me, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has a greater shortcoming.John uses the same pairing: ἐξουσία (exousia, authority or power) and δίδωμι (didōmi, to give), then names the source as “from above.” Revelation leaves the giver unstated, while this shared wording opens the locusts’ power as authority received.
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