Revelation 9:1

πεπτωκότα. “Fallen.” St John does not say that he witnessed the actual fall.

ἐδόθη αὐτῷ. Clearly therefore the star is identified with a person: no doubt a “fallen angel,” in the common sense of the term. For the identification of angels with stars, cf. Revelation 1:20, and Job 38:7 : and of fallen angels in particular, Enoch xviii. 16, xxi. 3, &c. The fall of this star may legitimately be illustrated, as to the image by Isaiah 14:12, and as to the meaning by Luke 10:18; Luke 12:9 in this book: but it is not to be assumed that this passage refers to the same event as either of the two last, still less that the first does.

τοῦ φρέατος τῆς�. Lit. “of the pit (or “well”) of the abyss”: the depth of Hell, the home or penal prison of the demons (cf. Luke 8:31 καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἵνα μὴ ἐπιτάξῃ αὐτοῖς εἰς τὴν ἄβυσσον�), is conceived as a pit in the earth’s surface, no doubt literally bottomless, and probably more spacious than the shaft which gives access to it. This last, like the mouth of an earthly reservoir, can be fitted with a cover which is fastened down with a padlock or seal. Cf. Revelation 11:7; Revelation 17:8, for the notion of evil beings issuing from the pit; Revelation 20:1; Revelation 20:3, for their being confined there. But notice (i) that this pit is nowhere identified with the “lake of fire,” the final destination of the Devil and his angels; (ii) that we are not told that the Devil himself is cast into it yet—rather the contrary is implied.