deep Summary and Overview

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; 20:13).

DEEP , THE, in Luke 8:31 and Rom 10:7, does not refer to the sea, but to the abyss, the place where lost spirits await their final doom. The same word is rendered the "bottomless pit" in Rev 9:1-2, Rev 1:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 20:13.

Romans 10:7, "who shall descend into the deep?" A proverb for impossibility: "say not in thine heart, I wish one could bring Christ up from the dead, but it is impossible." Nay, salvation "is nigh thee," only "believe" in the Lord Jesus raised from the dead, "and thou shalt be saved." Greek abyss (Luke 8:31), literally, the bottomless place. Translated in Revelation 9:1-2; Revelation 9:11; Revelation 11:7; Revelation 11:17, "bottomless pit." The demons in the Gadarene besought not to be cast into the abyss, i.e. before their time, the day of final judgment. 2 Peter 2:4; they are "delivered into chains of darkness, and reserved unto judgment." They are free to hurt meanwhile, like a chained beast, only to the length of their chain (Judges 1:6). The "darkness of this present world," the "air" (Ephesians 2:2), is their peculiar element; they look forward with agonizing fear to their final torment in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:10). Language is used as though the abyss were in the lowest depth of our earth. We do not know whether this is literal, or an accommodation to human conceptions, to express the farthest removal from the heavenly light.