I: Creation and Eden

The Abyss (Bottomless Pit)

the bounded deep where destruction is held

Root
Gen 1:2 · tehom (H8415)
Old Testament chain
  1. Gen 1:2
  2. Gen 7:11
  3. Job 38:8-11
  4. Ps 74:13-14
  5. Isa 24:21-22
  6. Isa 51:10
  7. Rev 9:1
New Testament
Rev 8:13; Rev 9:1-2, 11; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:1-3; Luke 8:31; 2 Pet 2:4

The abyss first appears as the tehom of Genesis 1:2, where "darkness was upon the face of the deep." The Flood shows its fountains "broken up" only at Yahuah's word (Gen 7:11), and Job hears Him shut the sea "with doors" and say "hitherto shalt thou come, but no further" (Job 38:8-11). Isaiah sees the rebel host "gathered together... in the pit" and "shut up in the prison" (Isa 24:22). Revelation carries this forward: the abyss is a real dimension of creation, its powers bounded, and its key given, not stolen. The futurist claim that Revelation 20 describes a coming thousand-year earthly reign misreads a binding the text frames as Yahuah's present restraint.

From The Courtroom of Heaven, pp. 125, 130, 281–282