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E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Revelation 9:2

out of. App-104 . furnace. Compare Revelation 1:15 . Indicating a place of fire, but not to be confused with Hades (Sheol) or with Tartarus. Compare Jeremiah 4:23-28 , where the judgments are against Judah and the Land. Here, John sees them extended to the whole earth. by reason of Greek. ek. App-104 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Revelation 9:2

And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up 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.The smoke here, and the locusts, are the hellish teachings, influences, thought styles, intellectual delusions, etc., that darken the true light of Christ in the world. The perverted minds of sinful men mislead the whole world, promising happiness, but giving instead wretched and miserable torment.This obscuration... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Revelation 9:2

Revelation 9:2. There arose a smoke out of the pit,— As a great smoke hinders the sight, so do errors the understanding. St. John keeps to the allegory, says Grotius: a smoke takes from us the sight of the stars. Smoke, especially when proceeding from a fierce fire, is also a representation of devastation. Thus when Abraham beheld the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the smoke of the country went up, as the smoke of a furnace. The great displeasure of God is represented by the same figurative... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Revelation 9:1-11

The fifth trumpet (first woe) 9:1-11"Already introduced by the eagle’s proclamation in Revelation 8:13, the fifth trumpet sets the tone for the last three trumpets through its specificity and independence of the two to follow. This feature marks the last three seals too. The seventh trumpet also resembles the seventh seal in the way it solemnly concludes the whole and contains the next series within in its scope. As with the seals also, two episodes intervene between the sixth and seventh... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Revelation 9:2

John saw smoke rising from the shaft leading to an underground chamber. The smoke probably symbolizes the terribleness of the place from which the locusts emerge (cf. Ephesians 2:2). In Revelation smoke usually relates to judgment, doom, and torment (Revelation 9:17-18; Revelation 18:9; Revelation 19:3), though it also has connections with holy things (Revelation 8:4; Revelation 15:8). The context specifies a negative connotation here (cf. Genesis 19:28; Exodus 19:18). What John saw resembled... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 9:1-21

The Fifth and Sixth TrumpetsThese herald woes upon the ungodly and idolatrous, inflicted both by demonic and by human agency.1-12. The fifth trumpet initiates the first of the three woes. A star fallen to the earth, i.e. an angel who has descended from heaven (cp. Revelation 1:20), not necessarily an evil angel (Revelation 9:1), opens the pit of the abyss. The ’abyss’ is the abode of evil spirits or demons, and the ’pit’ is the shaft which was supposed to lead to it. St. John uses this Jewish... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Revelation 9:2

(2) And he opened . . .—Translate, And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air, by reason of the smoke of the pit. The first result of the opening of the pit is the diffusion of such a dense smoke that light and atmosphere are darkened. In the previous vision there was an obscuration of light arising from the smiting of the luminaries; in this the obscuration arises from causes external to the... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Revelation 9:1-21

Revelation 9:2 Milton alludes to this passage in the great apostrophe towards the close of his Reformation in England, where he invites the Triune God on behalf of England's peace and purity. 'Look upon this, Thy poor and almost spent and expiring Church, leave her not thus a prey to these importunate wolves, that wait and think long till they devour Thy tender flock; these wild boars that have broke into Thy vineyard, and left the print of their polluting hoofs upon the souls of Thy servants.... read more

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