Pit
“Bor: cistern or well; Shachath: something dug or sunken; Sheol: the underworld”
Summary
In Scripture, 'pit' translates several Hebrew words referring to cisterns, dungeons, traps, or the grave, often used figuratively for hopeless doom or divine judgment.
☩Hebrew Terms and Meanings
Several Hebrew words are translated 'pit.' Bor (בּוֹר) refers to a deep hole or cistern dug for water, but when empty it served as a dungeon or tomb. Shachath (שַׁחַת) emphasizes the sinking or digging of a pit, often used for animal traps covered lightly to ensnare prey. Sheol is used in passages like Numbers 16:30-33 for the underworld or realm of the dead. These physical realities—empty cisterns with miry clay, covered traps, and dark dungeons—gave rise to powerful spiritual metaphors.
☩Pits as Prisons
Cisterns and excavations commonly served as prisons in the ancient East, where captives were left to slow death by starvation. Joseph's brothers cast him into a waterless pit before selling him to merchants (Genesis 37:22-29). Jeremiah was let down by cords into a dungeon pit with miry clay at the bottom, where he sank and would have perished without intervention (Jeremiah 38:6-13). Deliverance from such a pit represented the greatest of rescues, and thus became a powerful image for God's salvation.
☩Figurative Uses
The pit frequently symbolizes hopeless doom and the consequences of sin. The wicked dig pits for others but fall into them themselves (Psalm 7:15-16). 'Going down to the pit' represents not merely death but dishonored death and judgment (Ezekiel 31:14-16; 32:18-24). In the New Testament, the 'bottomless pit' (Greek: φρέαρ τῆς ἀβύσσου) appears in Revelation as a dungeon for demonic powers, opened with a key and securing Satan himself (Revelation 9:1-2; 20:1-3).
Related Verses87 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Pit," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VIII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Pit," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Pit," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).