pit Summary and Overview

a hole in the ground (Ex. 21:33, 34), a cistern for water (Gen. 37:24; Jer. 14:3), a vault (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 (Rev. 20:1, 3). The slime-pits in the vale of Siddim were wells which yielded asphalt (Gen. 14:10).

[HELL]

PIT . This term is used to render several Hebrew words. It denotes a cistern or a reservoir, which the Eastern people are in the habit of preparing in those regions where there are few or no springs for the purpose of preserving rain-water for travellers and cattle. These cisterns and trenches are often without water, there being no supply for them except from the rain. It was into such a dry cistern that Joseph was cast. In old decayed cisterns the water leaks out or becomes slimy, and such a pit becomes the image of dreariness and misery. Jer 2:13; Ps 40:2; Zech 9:11. Next, the word is used for the grave and as an image of the realm of death, Ps 28:1; Isa 30:3, Ps 30:9; Ps 88:4, and finally it is employed as the name of the game-trap. Eze 19:8. The pit here spoken of is used at this day in all wild countries. A deep hole in the earth is covered very slightly with boughs or shrubs, upon which is placed a living lamb, which by its cries allures the lion or wolf; and when the beast makes a sudden spring upon his prey, he is caught in the pit below. This affords a significant figure of the devices of crafty men and devils. Ps 119:85; Prov 26:27; Eze 19:4.

(1) She'ol, "Hades"; the covered, unseen world. (See HELL.) (2) Shachath, "sunk and lightly covered [pit]" to entrap animals (Psalm 9:16; Psalm 35:7); typifying "hopeless doom" (Job 33:18; Job 33:24; Job 33:28; Job 33:30). (3) Bor, "a pit or cistern once full of water, now empty", with miry clay beneath (Psalm 40:2; Zechariah 9:11); used as dungeon wherein the captive has no water or food; so Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:6; Jeremiah 38:9), Isaiah 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 (Ezekiel 31:14; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:24). frontABYSS on the "bottomless pit": Revelation 9:1-2; Revelation 20:1-2.)