– Great depth in the earth, where the immense waters of the sea and sources in general would be contained:
Gen 1:2 : The earth was without form and void; darkness covered the abyss.
Gen 7:11 : In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life […] all the fountains of the great deep burst up.
Gn 8,2 : The fountains of the abyss were closed, as well as the barriers of the sky, and the rains were withheld.
Ex 15,5 : The abyss covered them; they sank like a stone in the waters.
Deuteronomy 8:7 : He will lead you to an excellent land, full of torrents, fountains and deep waters.
Ps 10 :3: When the very foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do?
Ez 31,4 : The waters made it grow; the abyss made him rise.
Is 51:10 : Was it not you who dried up the sea and stopped the waters of the great deep?
– By extension, it is used to indicate abundance and greatness:
Gen 49:25 : With the blessings of the highest heaven, with the blessings of the deepest abyss, with the blessings of the breasts and the breast.
Ps 35 :7 : Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, your judgments are deep like the sea.
– Sometimes human qualities and gestures are attributed to him; its “inhabitants” are even invited to praise the Lord. Its use in a figurative sense shows the Lord’s power over him:
Job 28:14 : The abyss says: “She is not in me”.
Job 41:23 : It leaves a luminous furrow behind it, as if the abyss had white hair.
Ps 41,8 : One wave brings another in the roar of the revolting waters, all the billows of your torrents have passed over me.
Song 8,7 : The torrents could not extinguish love, nor the rivers could submerge it.
Is 51:10 : Was it not you who dried up the sea and stopped the waters of the great deep?
Hab 3:10 : A waterspout falls, the abyss utters its voice, and lifts up its hands.
– In Genesis, he is spoken of right away. It is filled by the lower waters. Already in Gn 7,1-17 it separates from the waters that are above the firmament. Upon both again the power of God is expressed:
Gen 1,6-7 : God said: “Let a expanse be made between the waters, and separate it one from the other”.
Gen 7 : 1-17: That day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the walls of heaven were opened.
– Progressively the sea became synonymous with the place of evil. In it dwell the demons and the dead. According to the Jewish mentality, St. Peter calls it the place of darkness in hell; with a similar belief qualifies him as the author of the Apocalypse; he even says that there will be no more sea (evil):
Lk 8:31 : And they asked him not to order them to go into the abyss.
Romans 10 :7 : Who will descend into the abyss?
2Pt 2,4 : For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but threw them into the dark abysses of hell.
Revelation 9:1.11 : Then I saw a star fall from heaven to earth, and the key to the bottomless pit was given to him.
Rev 11:7: The wild beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, overcome them and kill them.
Rev 17,8 : The wild beast you saw was, but is no more; she must rise from the abyss.
Rev 20,1-2 : Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great handcuff in his hand.
Rev 21:1 : The first heaven and the first earth disappeared and the sea no longer existed.
– See GEENNA, HELL.
