Revelation 9:19: For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

John mentions for the third time that the armies of Armageddon represented by horses¹ have power in their mouth.² In this verse, he adds that this power is in both their mouth, and in their tails.³ This imagery confirms again that the power of Satan is the unseen influence that controls the mortal armies of Armageddon. The imagery reflects this because the horses' tails are like unto serpents (plural), which alludes to Satan and his spirit sons of perdition.⁴ The imagery comes from the premortal existence where the tail of the Dragon (Lucifer) drew away a third part of God's spirit children.⁵ In Revelation chapter 9, John explains that after Lucifer and his followers fell from heaven to the bottomless pit they will emerge during the future First Woe like locusts with scorpion tails.⁶ These locusts of evil spirits will have power in their scorpion tails to torment⁷ wicked people during the First Woe.⁸ This locust imagery then evolves into the horses of mortal armies and horsemen of evil spirits during Physical Armageddon. The evil spirits of the First Woe have increased power during the Second Woe to hurt‒meaning to kill‒wicked people with their serpent-like tails.⁹

The mouth and tails of the horses logically represent different groups of combatants in the physical battle of Armageddon. The mouth represents large gentile nations gathered to Armageddon with power to kill the third part of men.¹⁰ The serpent-like tails are attached to the horses, but they also have heads that act independent of the horses.¹¹ Logically, therefore, the tails represent groups and individuals¹² that kill smaller numbers of people worldwide, as opposed to the heads of horses or large armies that actually assemble to Armageddon in the Middle East.¹³ The symbolic tails may represent state-sponsored terrorist groups,¹⁴ domestic gangs and organized crime.¹⁵ They may also represent corrupt individuals motivated by Satanic power and ideology.¹⁶ John saw them as serpents because they are Satan's agents.¹⁷

The serpents with deadly heads¹⁸ are like secret combinations¹⁹ that are active in the last days as they were anciently.²⁰ Nephi described these secret combinations as a flaxen cord made up of many strands.²¹ The similarity is undeniable between Nephi's strands of flaxen cords and John's serpent tails. The serpent tails will not have power to kill large masses of people like the horses through their mouths.²² However, the serpent tails are a deadly, subtle, and malicious enemy.²³ Through the subtlety of the serpent tails, God will exercise his wrath against the wicked and rebellious in small enclaves,²⁴ while preserving the righteous.²⁵

Based on current battlefield conditions, it's not difficult to envision the horses of Armageddon as nations that represent the great world powers. They possess large militaries and armaments that include hypersonic ballistic missiles, electronic warfare capabilities, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's), nuclear weapons, and the latest generation of battlefield technology. The tails on the horses, by contrast, are individuals, groups, and governments in large numbers that possess crude but deadly weapons such as drones, dirty bombs, rocket launchers, improvised explosive devices (IED's), and suicide bombers. Both the horses and the tails on the horses will have their role in Physical Armageddon on a worldwide scale.