There arose a smoke out of the pit As a great smoke hinders the sight, so do errors blind the understanding. The apostle keeps to the allegory, says Grotius, for smoke takes from us the sight of the stars; smoke, especially when proceeding from a fierce fire, is also a representation of devastation. Thus when Abraham beheld the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. The great displeasure of God is represented by the same figurative expressions of smoke and fire, Psalms 18:7-8. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth Many Protestant writers imagine these locusts signify the religious orders of monks and friars, &c., but Mede understands by them the inundation of the Saracens, locusts and grasshoppers being elsewhere expressly made to signify both the multitude of the eastern nations invading Israel, and the swift progress and destruction they made, Judges 6:5. And Lowman confirms this interpretation, and shows that the rise and progress of the Mohammedan religion and empire, till checked by internal divisions, is a remarkable accomplishment of this part of the prophecy; which is further illustrated by the ignorance and error the Mohammedans everywhere spread, their great number and hardiness, their habits, customs, and manners, namely, twisting their hair, wearing beards, their care of their horses, invading their neighbours in summer like locusts, sparing the trees and fruits of the countries they invaded; the captivity of the men, and the miserable condition of the women, exposed to persons who gave an almost unbounded liberty to their lusts, which was enough to make them even to desire death, Revelation 9:6. All these circumstances are suitable to the character of the Arabians, the history of this period, and to the particulars of this prophecy.
That the Saracens were intended by the locusts here mentioned, was also the opinion of Bishop Newton, who interprets this part of the prophecy as follows: “At the sounding of the fifth trumpet, a star fallen from heaven, meaning the wicked impostor Mohammed, opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, and the sun and the air were darkened by it; that is, a false religion was set up, which filled the world with darkness and error, and swarms of Saracen or Arabian locusts overspread the earth. A false prophet is very fitly typified by a blazing star or meteor. The Arabians, likewise, are properly compared to locusts, not only because numerous armies frequently are so, but also because swarms of locusts often arise from Arabia; and also because in the plagues of Egypt, to which constant allusion is made in these trumpets, the locusts (Exo 10:13) are brought by an east wind, that is, from Arabia, which lay eastward of Egypt; and also because in the book of Judges, (Judges 7:12,) the people of Arabia are compared to locusts or grasshoppers for multitude, for in the original the word for both is the same. As the natural locusts are bred in pits, and holes of the earth, so these mystical locusts are truly infernal, and proceed with the smoke from the bottomless pit.” It is too a remarkable coincidence, that at this time the sun and the earth were really darkened. For we learn from an eminent Arabian historian, that “in the seventeenth year of Heraclius half the body of the sun was eclipsed, and this defect continued from the former Tisrin to Haziran, (that is, from October to June,) so that only a little of its light appeared.” The seventeenth year of Heraclius coincides with the year of Christ 626, and with the fifth year of the Hegira; and at this time Mohammed was training and exercising his followers in depredations at home, to fit them for greater conquests abroad.