Revelation 9:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 9:2
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
to open up (literally or figuratively · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
bottomless
ἀβύσσου·abussou
G12
depthless · noun — genitive singular feminine
pit
φρέαρphrear
G5421
a hole in the ground (dug for obtaining or holding wate… · noun — accusative singular neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
arose
ἀνέβηanebē
G305
to go up (literally or figuratively) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
smoke
καπνὸςkapnos
G2586
smoke · noun — nominative singular masculine
out
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
pit
φρέατοςphreatos
G5421
a hole in the ground (dug for obtaining or holding wate… · noun — genitive singular neuter
as
ὡςhōs
G5613
which how · particle
smoke
καπνὸςkapnos
G2586
smoke · noun — nominative singular masculine
great
μεγάλης,megalēs
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — genitive singular feminine
furnace
καμίνουkaminou
G2575
a furnace · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
sun
ἥλιοςhēlios
G2246
perhaps akin to the alternate of G138 (αἱρέομαι)) · noun — nominative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
air
ἀὴρaēr
G109
by analogy · noun — nominative singular masculine
darkened
σκοτίζωskotízō
G4654
to obscure (literally or figuratively)
reason
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
smoke
καπνοῦkapnou
G2586
smoke · noun — genitive singular masculine
pit
φρέατος.phreatos
G5421
a hole in the ground (dug for obtaining or holding wate… · noun — genitive singular neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joel 2:10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining…
Genesis 19:28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the…
Joel 2:2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a s…
Isaiah 14:31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his…
Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Acts 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Exodus 10:21-23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which m…
Exodus 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furn…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 9:1-12
Upon the sounding of this trumpet, the things to be observed are, 1. A star falling from heaven to the earth. Some think this star represents some eminent bishop in the Christian church, some angel of the church; for, in the same way of speaking by which pastors are called stars, the church is called heaven; but who this is expositors do not agree. Some understand it of Boniface the third bishop of Rome, who assumed the title of universal bishop, by the favour of the emperor Phocas, who, being a usurper and tyrant in the state, allowed Boniface to be so in the church, as the reward of his flattery. 2. To this fallen star was given the key of the bottomless pit. Having now ceased to be a mini…
He opened the bottomless pit - Το φρεαρ της αβυσσου· The pit of the bottomless deep. Some think the angel means Satan, and the bottomless pit hell. Some suppose Mohammed is meant; and Signior Pastorini professes to believe that Luther is intended!
There arose a smoke - False doctrine, obscuring the true light of heaven.
John Gill on Revelation 9:2
And he opened the bottomless pit,.... With the key that was given him; he made use of his universal power over all bishops and churches, enacted laws, issued out decrees, made articles of faith, and imposed them on men's consciences, and obliged all to submit to his hellish principles and practices; and this, as it may be applied to Mahomet, the eastern antichrist, may regard the publishing of his Alcoran, and obliging all his followers to receive it as the infallible word of God:
and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; the Complutensian edition reads, "of a burning furnace"; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions; which may design false doctrine, and superst…
The smoke from the pit turned the sky dark, as in the plague on Egypt (Exod 10:21-29; see Matt 27:45).
The Church Fathers
And the smoke of the pit arose, like the smoke of a great furnace, etc. Proclaiming the great furnace, that is, the final persecution, the heretical madness rages, not only attempting to obscure the light of the weaker ones, who, like the air, touch the boundaries of the earth and heaven in some way, but also striving to obscure the light of the exalted ones, though not able to extinguish it. For even the elect will be led into error, if possible (Matthew XXIV).
[The devil] revealed his own heart, which sins without any fear or shame. "And smoke rose from the pit," that is, from a people that covers and obscures the church, so that it is said that "the sun and air were darkened with the smoke." It says that the sun was darkened, not that it fell to the earth. For the sins of evil and prideful persons, which are constantly being committed throughout the world, obscure the sun, that is, obscure the church and sometimes cause darkness for the saints and the righteous. For the number of the evil is so great that it is often with great difficulty that the good among them become evident.
"He opened the shaft of the pit" means that he revealed his own heart and taught people to sin without any fear or shame. "And smoke arose from the pit," that is, from the heart of a blasphemous people which also persecutes the church. "And the sun and air were darkened by the smoke of the pit." The sins that people constantly commit through the world obscure among them the sun of faith and of righteousness and in some produce a blindness so that they do not see the light of truth. "As smoke from a great furnace." This smoke that precedes the fire of the furnace generally refers to the last persecution, for the earlier persecution burns against the church, and then the crowd of hypocrites and unbelievers will be manifested. And outside [the church] the insanity of many caused by this smoke is already advanced.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Air — The atmosphere, as opposed to the higher regions of the sky (1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 9:2; 16:17). This word occurs once as the rendering of the Hebrew ruah (Job 41:16); elsewhere it is the rendering of…
Deep — Used to denote (1) the grave or the abyss (Rom. 10:7; Luke 8:31); (2) the deepest part of the sea (Ps. 69:15); (3) the chaos mentioned in Gen. 1:2; (4) the bottomless pit, hell (Rev. 9:1, 2; 11:7;…
Furnace — (1.) Chald. attun, a large furnace with a wide open mouth, at the top of which materials were cast in (Dan. 3:22, 23; comp. Jer. 29:22). This furnace would be in constant requisition, for the…
Astronomy · SI — SI
Darkness · .Of — .Of
Fire · .Of the — .Of the
Furnace · .Of hell — .Of hell
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37; — 9:7;26:7,8,11;27:20,21;28:24-27;29:19;36:27-33;37:6-22;38:8-11,22,24-29,31-35,37;
Pit · .The bottomless pit — .The bottomless pit
Sun · .Darkening of — .Darkening of
Sun, The · Illustrative: (Darkened,) of severe calamities — Illustrative: (Darkened,) of severe calamities
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
