When we examine Revelation 13:1 we learn that the beast rises up (same

word as 'ascend') out of the sea, and this proves a help not a problem, for

we shall find that the abyss is constantly associated with the sea.  This of

course we learn by considering its usage in the Septuagint.  We find it

equated with the sea in Job 28:14; 38:16; Psalm 33:7; 42:7; 77:16; 135:6; but

more important still, we discover that in all these passages, the Greek word

translates the Hebrew tehom, 'the deep' of Genesis 1:2, and of Genesis 7:11,

the flood of judgment before the advent of Man, and the flood of judgment in

the days of Noah.

Psalm 104:6 says, 'Thou coveredst it with the abyss as with a garment:

the waters stood above the mountains'.  Psalm 106:9 says, 'He rebuked the Red

Sea also, and it was dried up: so He led them through the abyss, as through

the wilderness'.  Psalm 148:7 associates 'dragons' with all deeps, and Isaiah

51:9,10 does the same.  Proverbs 8:23,24 takes us back to 'the beginning, or

ever the earth was, when there were no abysses'. Amos 7:4 reveals that the

great abyss could be devoured or eaten up 'by fire', while the poetic vision

of Habakkuk 3:10,11 associates the trembling of the mountains and the abyss

lifting up its hands, with the paralysing of the sun and moon.  Such are the

predecessors of the seven references to the abyss in the Revelation.  The

first occurrence, at the 'overthrow of the world', Genesis 1:2, and the last

occurrences in Revelation 20:1 and 3 link the purpose of the ages, just as

surely as the reappearance of the Paradise of Revelation 22 links this

passage with the expulsion of Genesis 3.  All this gives point to the words

of Revelation 21:1, 'and there was no more sea', no more abyss, no more

'deep'.  Associated with this connection of the deep with Satan and his

imprisonment, is the statement in Revelation 9:14:

'Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates'.

We can no more explain how this river could hold in restraint four such

angels and the 'two hundred thousand thousand' demon horsemen that slay a

third part of men, than we can understand what sort of 'key' or 'chain' or

'abyss' could keep in hold such a being as Satan for a thousand years, but

these are revealed facts and they agree.  We can, however, see that the

Euphrates has a connection with Babel, even as the abyss is linked with

Genesis 1:2.

Returning to Revelation 20:1 -3, we see that the imprisonment of Satan

is the first, and the cause, of a series of 'restraints' that characterize

the Millennial reign.  The margin of Daniel 9:24 reads 'to restrain the

transgression' where the Authorized Version reads 'to finish the

transgression'.  The Hebrew word is kah -lah, 'to keep back, be restrained,

shut up'.  The noun form of this word keh -leh is translated in its ten

occurrences 'prison' with six marginal notes which read, lit., house of

restraint.  Transgression will by no means be 'finished' when Daniel 9:24 is

fulfilled, it will be 'restrained' or imprisoned along with the Devil, but

will break out as soon as the Devil is loosed from his prison.

Daniel 9:24 also says, 'to make an end of sins' and the margin reads,

'to seal up'.  The same word appears in the later reference in the same

verse, 'to seal up vision and prophecy'.  The Hebrew word is chatham and

appears again in Daniel 12:4, 'shut up the words, and seal the book', and

this 'even to the time of the end'.  We meet the word again in 12:9, 'the

words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end', and in Daniel 6:17

'the king sealed it with his own signet'.  The words 'shut up' and 'close up'