Reference: Pit
American
A reservoir, either natural or artificial, for water. Pits were sometimes used as dungeons, Ge 37:20; Jer 38:6; or being slightly covered, and baited, they served as traps to catch wild beasts, a device which illustrates the plots of designing men and women, Ps 119:85; Pr 22:14; 26:27; Eze 19:4. The word pit is also used to denote the grave, Ps 28:1; 30:3,9; and hell, Re 20:1.
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"Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
"What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
The arrogant have dug pits for me, Men who are not in accord with Your law.
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the LORD will fall into it.
He who digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
'Then nations heard about him; He was captured in their pit, And they brought him with hooks To the land of Egypt.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
Easton
a hole in the ground (Ex 21:33-34), a cistern for water (Ge 37:24; Jer 14:3), a vault (Jer 41:9), a grave (Ps 30:3). It is used as a figure for mischief (Ps 9:15), and is the name given to the unseen place of woe (Re 20:1,3). The slime-pits in the vale of Siddim were wells which yielded asphalt (Ge 14:10).
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Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them But those who survived fled to the hill country.
and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.
"If a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall become his.
The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.
O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
"Their nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and found no water They have returned with their vessels empty; They have been put to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads.
Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had cast all the corpses of the men whom he had struck down because of Gedaliah, it was the one that King Asa had made on account of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
Fausets
(1) She'ol, "Hades"; the covered, unseen world. (See HELL.)
(2) Shachath, "sunk and lightly covered [pit]" to entrap animals (Ps 9:16; 35:7); typifying "hopeless doom" (Job 33:18,24,28,30).
(3) Bor, "a pit or cistern once full of water, now empty", with miry clay beneath (Ps 40:2; Zec 9:11); used as dungeon wherein the captive has no water or food; so Jeremiah (Jer 38:6,9), Isa 51:14; hence symbolizing "the dishonored grave of the once haughty transgressor", with the idea of condign [deserved; appropriate] punishment in the unseen world, shadowed forth by the ignominious state of the body (Eze 31:14,16; 32:18,24). (See ABYSS on the "bottomless pit": Re 9:1-2; 20:1-2.)
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Then let him be gracious to him, and say, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom';
'He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, And my life shall see the light.'
To bring back his soul from the pit, That he may be enlightened with the light of life.
The LORD has made Himself known; He has executed judgment. In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.
For without cause they hid their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
"The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking.
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
"My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city."
so that all the trees by the waters may not be exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the clouds, nor their well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit."
"I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath.
"Son of man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the nether world, with those who go down to the pit;
"Elam is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who instilled their terror in the land of the living and bore their disgrace with those who went down to the pit.
As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
Hastings
Of the dozen Heb. words, besides two Gr. words in NT, rendered 'pit' in English Version, the following are the most important.
1. The term b
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"Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
"If a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it over, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
'Nevertheless a spring or a cistern collecting water shall be clean, though the one who touches their carcass shall be unclean.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits.
"Behold, he has now hidden himself in one of the caves or in another place; and it will be when he falls on them at the first attack, that whoever hears it will say, 'There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.'
They took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest and erected over him a very great heap of stones And all Israel fled, each to his tent.
To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;
"Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.
"Terror, pit and snare are coming upon you, O inhabitant of Moab," declares the LORD.
'Then nations heard about him; He was captured in their pit, And they brought him with hooks To the land of Egypt.
'Then nations set against him On every side from their provinces, And they spread their net over him; He was captured in their pit.
"But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.
And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"
Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.
Morish
There are several Hebrew words translated 'pit.' The principal are:
1. sheol, 'the grave, hades, hell.' Nu 16:30,33; Job 17:16.
2. shachath, 'a pit, a pitfall to entrap animals,' place of doom and corruption. Job 33:18,24,28,30; Ps 9:15; 30:9; 35:7; Eze 28:8; etc.
3. bor, beer, 'pit or well dug for water,' but which could be used for a dungeon. Ge 37:20-29; Ps 28:1; 40:2; 88:4,6; Eze 26:20; Zec 9:11; etc. See BOTTOMLESS PIT.
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"Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said, "Let us not take his life." read more. Reuben further said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him"--that he might rescue him out of their hands, to restore him to his father. So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it. Then they sat down to eat a meal. And as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened to him. Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt. Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments.
"But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD."
So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
Then let him be gracious to him, and say, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom';
'He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, And my life shall see the light.'
To bring back his soul from the pit, That he may be enlightened with the light of life.
The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.
To You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
"What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
For without cause they hid their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength,
then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living.
'They will bring you down to the pit, And you will die the death of those who are slain In the heart of the seas.
As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Smith
Pit.
[HELL]
See Hell