^9:10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.

The list of attributes of the scorpions (demons) continues.

8. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.

When a phrase "for five months" is repeated within a chapter (verse 5), it means it has importance. These demonic creatures will torment "unsealed" humans for five months. They cannot kill the unsealed people -- just make life miserable.

Then after five months, they all disappear. Again a brief respite to REPENT.

Consider how scorpions sting. The tail is kept out of sight until, from out of nowhere, while you are facing the creature, you get hit. Again, how deceptive is looking at beauty and the extreme torment lurking behind the beauty.

A person senses throughout this discussion of the scorpions, an overtone of sexuality. This almost seems like David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11:2-5 and the consequences in 2 Samuel 11:26-27. This is the combination of beauty, temptation, and sin.