But, before the star was seen by John “in the earth,” it had acquired possession of “the Key of the Pit of the Abyss” — he kleis tou phreatos tes abussou. The pit of the qbyss is the geographical locality of the “smoke,” out of which the locusts issued to invade “the earth.” When the pit was opened smoke arose out of it. The pit — to phrear— is contiguous to “the earth;” they abutt the one upon the other. It is an immense depression in the surface of the globe, confining upon Palestine, then a province of the Eastern Third, called the Greek or Byzantine empire. It is the pit or reservoir, or basin in which lies the abussos, abyss, or Dead Sea. It is introduced here symbolically to represent the region styled Arabia, whose tribes inhabited it, and poured out of it “into the earth.” The Arabic region is well represented as “the pit;” and locality of “a great furnace;” for the district of the Dead Sea, and of the whole valley of the Jordan northward to the Lake of Tiberias, is quite a phenomenon in physical geography, being below the level of the ocean. No other example of similar depression, or pit, is known. The Lake of Tiberias is 328 feet below the level of the Mediterranean; and from
thence the river-valley declines to the Dead Sea, the surface of which is very nearly 1,400 feet below the same level. Owing to the great depth of this “pit,” or depression of the surface, together with the heights which wall in the valley, the heat powerfully accumulates, or becomes as it were “a great furnace,” by the concentration and reflection of the solar rays, while the bordering highlands prevent the admission of external breezes to relieve the temperature. The climate is therefore tropical. Travellers, on descending into this low and deep country, feel as if they had entered another zone. They confirm the accuracy of Josephus, who reports that winter in the plain of Jericho resembled spring, and that the inhabitants wore linen garments at the time when the people in other parts of Judea were shivering in the midst of snow. The balsam-tree, a tropica] plant, which yields the medicinal gum, now called the balsam of Mecca, and is now limited to Arabia, once flourished in groves near Jericho, and furnished the renowned balm of Gilead. Apart from the
The Dead Sea Depression
The Jordan Valley from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea is a phenomenon in physical geography, being below the level of the ocean. A small plane can fly above the Dead Sea ana yet be below normal sea level! The depression extends further south via the Arabah through Arabia proper to the Gulf of Aqaba. This area saw the uprise of the Saracen power, the locusts of Revelation 9
margin of the Jordan, the surface of “the pit” has the aspect of a parched desert through the months of summer.
Such are the natural conditions of this “pit of the abyss,” or sea, which constitute it a fit and proper emblem of the political situation of affairs within its limits before its locusts issued forth upon the earth. The whole pit was in the condition of a furnace. In Deut. 4:20, Egypt is styled “an iron furnace” to Israel; and in Isa. 31:8,9, Zion and Jerusalem are styled the place of the fire and the furnace, whence shall issue the destruction that is to fall upon the Assyrian. So this Arabian Pit was the place of a fire burning as a furnace, which, when it should be “opened,” would pour forth a woeful tormenting power upon the unsealed inhabitants of the earth. The inhabitants of this pit of the sea, while they were shut up therein, would be in a state of war and distraction; for such is the idea conveyed by a burning furnace, which melts down the crude matters cast into it. A great furnace is never a symbol of peace and prosperity; but always of the contrary. John saw the pit of the abyss in this fiery, or embattled, condition before it was opened; but he has revealed to us no details. He has simply informed us, that a power was developed that was able to open the pit of the abyss; and to let out the contents thereof, which he styles “smoke” and “locusts”. This information he conveys in the words, “and to him (the Star) was given the Key of the Pit of the Abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss; and smoke ascended out of the pit. . . and out of the smoke came forth locusts into the earth.”