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Apocalypse 9:3

And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power:

Challoner: There came out locustsThese may be devils in Antichrist's time, having the appearance of locusts, but large and monstrous, as here described. Or they may be real locusts, but of an extraordinary size and monstrous shape, such as were never before seen on earth, sent to torment those who have not the sign (or seal) of God on their foreheads. Some commentators by these locusts understand heretics, and especially those heretics, that sprung from Jews, and with them denied the divinity of Jesus Christ; as Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Arius, etc. These were great enemies of the Christian religion; they tormented and infected the souls of men, stinging them like scorpions, with the poison of their heresies. Others have explained these locusts, and other animals, mentioned in different places throughout this sacred and mystical book, in a most absurd, fanciful, and ridiculous manner; they make Abaddon the Pope, and the locusts to be friars mendicant, etc. Here it is thought proper, not to enter into any controversy upon that subject, as the inventors of these fancies have been already answered, and fully refuted by many controvertists: besides, those who might be inposed on by such chimerical writers, are in these days much better informed.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): et de fumo putei exierunt locustæ in terram, et data est illis potestas, sicut habent potestatem scorpiones terræ :
Greek New Testament (SBLGNT): καὶ ἐκ τοῦ καπνοῦ ἐξῆλθον ἀκρίδες εἰς τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐταῖς ἐξουσία ὡς ἔχουσιν ἐξουσίαν οἱ σκορπίοι τῆς γῆς.

Haydock's commentary

There came out locusts; devils, in antichrist's time, when the chief devil, Abaddon, the destroyer, shall be as it were let loose. Others by locusts, understand the Goths and those barbarous people that made an irruption into the Roman empire, in the time of Decius, about the year 250[A.D. 250]. Others again, by locusts, understand heretics, and especially those heretics that spring from the Jews, and with them denied the divinity of our Saviour Christ, as Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Arius, &c. These were the great enemies of Christian religion, and instruments of the devil: they tormented and infected the souls of men, stinging them like scorpions with the poison of their heresies. They had power for five months, by which is signified for a short term, but had no power to hurt those who were sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads. God protected, at least from sin, his faithful servants. It is to no purpose to give the reader divers fancies and inventions about their shape, their heads, tails, hair, teeth, &c. nor is it worth my while to confute such writers as Mr. Willet, who, Brightman-like, makes Abaddon the pope, and the locusts to be friars mendicant. With this fifth trumpet ended the first of the three woes, as we are told in ver. 12. (Witham)

The locusts are commonly understood of heretics. They are not able to hurt the green tree; that is, such as have a lively faith, working by charity; but only the reprobate. The latter are represented as prepared to battle, as being ever ready to contend; they wear counterfeit gold on their heads, for all is but pretence and fiction; in shape they are as men, in smoothness of speech as women; in fury and rage against all that opposes them, as lions; their breasts and hearts are as hard as iron; they are full of noise and shuffling; the sting of their pestiferous doctrine is worse than that of a scorpion; but their reign is generally but for a short time. (Challoner)

Read on

Heretics are compared to locusts, says St. Jerome, because they are a species of insects extremely hurtful to mankind, as they occasion famine, eat up the harvest, and even strip the trees and the vines. With very great propriety then may the locusts here mentioned be understood of the first reformers, not only on account of their rapacity, but also for their number. Luther was their leader, by allowing every one to be his own interpreter of Scripture, the effects of which we have described by Dudithius, a learned Protestant divine, in his epistle to Beza. "What sort of people are our Protestants, straggling to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, sometimes to this side, and sometimes to that? You may, perhaps, know what their sentiments in matters of religion are to-day; but you can never certainly tell what they will be to-morrow. In what article of religion do these churches agree, which have cast off the bishop of Rome? Examine all of them from top to bottom, and you will scarce find one thing affirmed by one, which is not immediately condemned by another for wicked doctrine." The same confusion of opinions is thus described by an English Protestant, the learned Dr. Walton: "Aristarchus heretofore could scarcely find seven wise men in Greece, but with us scarce are to be found so many idiots; for all are doctors, all are divinely learned; there is not so much as the meanest fanatic, or jack-pudding, who does not give you his own dreams for the word of God." (Pastorini, hic.[here])

Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

The Shepherd of Hermas Book First. Visions, Vision Fourth. Concerning the Trial and Tribulation that are to Come Upon Men

Twenty days after the former vision I saw another vision, brethren, a representation of the tribulation that is to come. I was going to a country house along the Campanian road. Now the house lay about ten furlongs from the public road. The district is one rarely traversed. And as I walked alone, I prayed the Lord to complete the revelations which He had made to me through His holy Church, that He might strengthen me, and give repentance to all His servants who were going astray, that His great and glorious name might be glorified because He vouchsafed to show me His marvels. …