“And they were told to harm no vegetation of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Revelation 9:4

10. (a) Against whom primarily is the plague directed, and with what effect on them? (b) What kind of torment is involved? (See also footnote.)

¹⁰ Notice that this plague is not directed first against the people or prominent ones among them​—the ‘vegetation and trees of the earth.’ (Compare Revelation 8:7.) The locusts are to harm only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, those in Christendom who claim to be sealed but whose record belies that claim. (Ephesians 1:13, 14) Thus, the tormenting utterances of these modern-day locusts were directed first against the religious leaders of Christendom. How these self-assuming men must have been tormented at hearing it publicly announced that not only were they failing to lead their flocks to heaven but they themselves would not get there!d Truly, it has been a case of ‘the blind leading the blind’!​—Matthew 15:14.