Revelation 9:1

Fifth angel. The fifth trumpet is discussed in vs. 1–12. This trumpet is the first “woe” (see on ch. 8:13; cf. ch. 9:12, 13).

A star fall. Or, “a star fallen.” The star depicted here is not seen falling, as under the third trumpet (ch. 8:10), but is shown already fallen upon the earth.

It is interesting to note in passing that the figure of a fallen star occurs also in Jewish apocalyptic literature to describe Satan as a star fallen from heaven (Enoch 88:1; R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2, p. 251).

To him was given. This implies that the power represented by the key was not intrinsically his, but was allowed to him by a higher power.

The key. Possession of the key implies the power to open and close (see Rev. 3:7; cf. Matt. 16:19).

A number of commentators have identified the fifth and sixth trumpets with the ravages of the Saracens and the Turks. They point to the wars between the Persians under Khosrau II (A.D. 590–628) and the Romans under Heraclius I (610–641) as weakening the two empires, thus preparing the way for the Moslem conquest. The key, they suggest, is the fall of Khosrau, whose overthrow and murder in A.D. 628 marked the end of the Persian Empire as an effective power and opened the way for the advance of the Arabian forces.

Bottomless pit. Gr. phrear tēs abussou, “pit of the bottomless [place],” or “well of the abyss.” The word abussos is used repeatedly in the LXX to translate the Hebrew tehom (see on Gen. 1:2, where abussos represents the primeval ocean). In Job 41:31 it represents the sea in general, and in Ps. 71:20, the depths of the earth. The abussos is also the abode of leviathan. Thus the LXX of Job 41:22, 23, 25 (vs. 31, 32, 34 of the Masoretic text) reads, “He [the dragon] makes the deep [abussos] boil like a brazen caldron; and he regards the sea as a pot of ointment, and the lowest part of the deep as a captive: he reckons the deep as his range. … He beholds every high thing: and he is king of all that are in the waters” (English trans. in Bagster’s ed. of the LXX). With respect to the Arabs, the bottomless pit may be thought of as representing the vast wastes of the Arabian deserts, whence these followers of Mohammed issued forth, to spread their conquests over vast areas.