⁴ They were told not to harm^(A) the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,^(B) but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.^{(C) 5} They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^(D) And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^(E) when it strikes. ⁶ During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.^(F)