Bible Questions Answered:
“In Luke 8 demons begged not to go to
the abyss, what is the abyss that makes it so bad even demons don't
want to go there?”
Shelly/ Seattle, Washington U.S.A.
Bible Answer:
Bible Text:
Luke 8:26-39 KJV
26 And they arrived at the country
of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
27 And when He went forth to land,
there met Him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long
time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the
tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out,
and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to
do with thee, Jesus, thou Son Of God Most High? I beseech thee,
torment me not.
29 (For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and
he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands,
and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What
is thy name? And he said, Legion:
because many devils were entered into him.
(Legion:
Romans Soldiers-3 to 6,000 soldiers.)
31 And they besought Him that He
would not command them to go out into the deep*.
*Deep: Greek, Abdan (Ab-dawn):
Perishing: destruction. Taken from …
*Abad (Aw-bad): To wonder away,
i.e. to lose oneself; to perish, (destroy): break, destroy, not
escape, fail, lose, (cause to , make) perish, be undone, have no way
to flee.
Luke 8:31 NLT
31 The demons kept begging Jesus not
to send them into the bottomless pit*.
Bottomless Pit: Abyss, or
underworld.
(See: Revelation 9:1,2,11/ 11:7/
17:8/20:1,3) (See definition Abdan.)
Luke 8:31 NASB
31 They were imploring Him not to
command them to go away into the abyss.
32 And there was there an herd of
many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought Him that He
would suffer (permit) them to enter into them. And He suffered them.
33 Then went the devils out of the
man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a
steep place into the lake, and were choked.
34 When they that fed them saw what
was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the
country.
35 Then they went out to see what
was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the
devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in
his right mind: and they were afraid.
36 They also which saw it told them
by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.
37 Then the whole multitude of the
country of the Gadarenes round about besought Him to depart from
them; for they were taken with great fear: and He went up into the
ship, and returned back again.
38 Now the man out of whom the
devils were departed besought Him that he might be with Him: but
Jesus sent him away, saying,
39 Return to thine own house, and
shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way,
and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had
done unto him.
Inner Prisons:
Jeremiah 38:6-9 NLT
6 So the officials took Jeremiah
from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in
the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal
family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick
layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it.
7 But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an
important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At
that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate,
8 so Ebed-melech rushed from the
palace to speak with him.
9 “My lord the king,” he said,
“these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the
prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger..."
Acts 16:24 KJV (Paul and Silas)
Who, having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in
the stocks.
The Romans had "...circular pits
dug in the ground for storing grain, and were twenty-five feet deep
and ten wide. The top was covered with flagstones, having a small
hole for the admission of air, and letting in the rain and show as
well.. The prisoners were kept in these dungeons for weeks..."
Van Lennep
The abyss, “A place of great depth.”
(Standard Bible Dictionary)
As if hell, itself was not bad enough,
there is the abyss, the inner prison, the deep, the bottomless pit.
So terrible is this place, even Satan's
emissaries , fear, of ever being sent there ahead of their time.
II Peter 2:4 KJV (Tartarus)
For if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell*, and delivered them into
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
*Hell: Greek, Tartaroo
(Tar-tar-o-o): (From Tartaros) The deepest abyss of Hades; to
incarcerate in eternal torment: cast down to hell.
The Abyss, this place of torment, its
occupants are in chains, and darkness.
Exodus 10:21 NLT
21 Then the Lord said to Moses,
“Lift your hand toward heaven, and the land of Egypt will be
covered with a darkness so thick you can feel it.”
22 And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days:
I Samuel 2:9 KJV
He will keep the feet of His saints,
and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength
shall no man prevail.
Job 10:21,22 KJV
21 Before I go whence I shall not
return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of
death;
22 A land of darkness, as
darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without
any order, and where the light is as darkness.
Job 18:5-21 KJV (Bildad the
Shuhite.)
5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall
be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 The light shall be dark in
his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7 The steps of his strength shall
be straitened (shortened), and his own counsel shall cast him
down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his
own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9 The gin shall take him by the
heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10 The snare is laid for him in the
ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors shall make him afraid
on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12 His strength shall be hunger
bitten (depletes their strength-NLT), and destruction
shall be ready at his side.
13 It shall devour the strength
of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his
strength.
14 His confidence shall be rooted
out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of
terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle,
because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon
his habitation.
16 His roots shall be dried up
beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 His remembrance shall perish from
the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 He shall be driven from light
into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor
nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 They that come after him shall be
astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21 Surely such are the dwellings
of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Psalm 88:6 KJV
Thou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
Psalm 107:10 KJV
Such as sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
Matthew 22:13 KJV
Then said the king to the servants,
Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into
outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.
Matthew 25:30 KJV
And cast ye the unprofitable servant
into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.
II Peter 2:17 KJV
These are wells without water,
clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom
the mist of darkness is
reserved for ever.
Jude 1:6,13 KJV
6 And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day.
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming
out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the
blackness of darkness for ever.
Revelation 16:10 KJV
And the fifth angel poured out his
vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of
darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Psalm 69:14-16 KJV
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and
let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out
of the deep waters.
15 Let not the waterflood overflow
me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her
mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving
kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy
tender mercies.
