Revelation 9:10

9:10 They have ¹  tails and stingers like scorpions, and their ability ²  to injure people for five months is in their tails.

Isaiah 9:15

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ³  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Ephesians 4:14

4:14 So ⁴  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ⁵ 

¹ tn In the Greek text there is a shift to the present tense here; the previous verbs translated “had” are imperfects.

² tn See BDAG 352 s.v. ἐξουσία 2, “potential or resource to command, control, or govern, capability, might, power.”

³ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

⁴ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁵ tn While the sense of the passage is clear enough, translation in English is somewhat difficult. The Greek says: “by the trickery of men, by craftiness with the scheme of deceit.” The point is that the author is concerned about Christians growing into maturity. He is fearful that certain kinds of very cunning people, who are skilled at deceitful scheming, should come in and teach false doctrines which would in turn stunt the growth of the believers.