^9:4 And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

and

2) they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree,

It is the creatures from the PIT who are told by the four angels identified in Revelation 7:2, not to hurt any green thing. Now, if these are real locusts, as in the previous verse, then this is exactly opposite of what real locusts do. That is, real locusts feed on "green things". Also since they understand what they are not to do, these creatures are intelligent, at least more than real locusts are.

BUT ONLY the men who do not have the SEAL OF GOD on their foreheads.

Now, this is an interesting twist. It is clear that these creatures from the PIT are to go after men. Maybe this is a testing of those "unsealed" men who falsely claim they are sealed. The 144,000 men, apparently, are not sealed all at once as implied in Revelation 7:3. So these demons from the PIT appear to be released to do their mischief while the sealing continues by the four angels.

Some Bible scholars, believe this is much torment of demonic possession (not related to the 144,000 men). An example is the possession of Judas Iscariot in John 13:21-30 and the end result in Matthew 27:3-5.