For this pit, or bottomless ἀβύσσου, ἄβυσσος, see Rev cf. art. ABYSS.
PITCH (np}, 15>, πίσσα) may denote either mineral itch (bitumen), or the vegetable pitch obtained rom resinous trees. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xiv. 25, xvi. 23) reserves the word pra for the latter, while the former is called pissasphaltus. The words rendered ‘pitch’ in Scripture apparently refer to mineral pitch, an inflammable, viscous substance, Sa of a mixture of hydro-carbons, and found now in a more liquid, now in a more solid state (see BITUMEN).
5 occurs in Gn 6" as the name of the substance with which the ark was covered both within and without. The word has a variety of meanings elsewhere in OT, and its usage here is connected with the simple sense of the verb 15 (‘ to cover 3); which appears in the same verse as the cognate of the noun, and is tr¢‘to pitch.’ LXX has ἀσφαλ- τώσεις τῇ ἀσφάλτῳ, and ἄσφαλτος is elsewhere the rendering of 155 (‘ bitumen’). : ἤ
np} in Ex 2515 one of the substances with which the ark of bulrushes was daubed, the other being τσ. It might seem from the Hebrew as if two distinct substances were referred to, but LXX combines both in the translation ἀσφαλτοπίσσα. The distinction between n>] and 1p is probably that between the more liquid and the more solid varieties of bitumen.
In Is 349 n>] (LXX πίσσα) occurs twice in the pre- diction of the desolation of Edom. ‘The streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, . . . and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.’ The mention of ‘ brimstone’ in the same verse, and the fact that bitumen occurs along with sulphur near the Dead Sea, suggest that here also bitumen is meant.
In Apocr. πίσσα occurs thrice. Sir 13! refers to the defilement caused by touching pitch. In Three*
itch is mentioned among the substances used in indling ἘΠΟ ΣΕ ΞΈΝΟΣ fiery furnace. Bel ” describes how Daniel slew the dragon Be putting into its mouth lumps of pitch, fat, and hair, that had been boiled together. JAMES PATRICK.
PITCHER (13 kad, LXX ὑδρία ; in La 43 533, LXX κεράμιον, as in NT).—A vessel for holding water (Gn 24), carried by girls on their shoulders (ν.}ὅ). These vessels were eae of earthenware (Jg 7": 39), and munoiently wide-mouthed to admit a torch (Jg 7% 1%), Jt was in a kad that the widow of Zarephath zope her meal (1 Καὶ 17”), although the word is translated ‘barrel’ in AV and RV; and the vessels of water (also called ‘ barrels’) which Elijah caused to be poured over his sacrifice at Carmel were kaddim. In the figurative descrip- tion of death in Ec 12° the pitcher is said to be broken at the fountain. The nébel of Jeremiah was an earthen vessel in shape resembling a skin bottle, and probably had a narrower neck than the kad. As both vessels were made to be carried, they had usually a pair of handles, The pitcher borne by the man who led the apostles to the place where the Passover was to be prepared was & κεράμιον (Mk 14%, Lk 22!) The daamaritan woman’s waterpot was a hydria of earthenware (Jn 4%), smaller than the stone hydrie of Cana (Jn 2°), which do not seem to have been equally
rtable. In Is 5” κεράμιον of LXX represents
eb. na (EV ‘bath’); in Jer 35° it represents nébel (RV ‘pots,’ AV ‘ bowls’).
The Egyptian gad or gai (Copt. keAwA) was an earthenware vessel resembling the kad, with side handles, and sufficiently wide-mouthed to serve as a receptacle for fruit or other solids (Papyrus
PITHOM
——
Anastas. iv. 14), while commonly used for water or beer, as in the story of Anpu and Bata. Pitchers of this kind have been figured by Bliss (A Mound of Many Cities, pp. 118, 120), and by Petrie in his sketches of Palestinian pottery; see Tell el Hésy,
. 40, pl. vii. figs. 123, 125, ix. fig. 190. See art.
OTTERY.
The English word ‘pitcher’ is derived from the French. The vessel is called pichier in the Lan- guedoc, and this has its root in the Latin picarium or bicariwm, from which we also have got the word ‘beaker.’ The word does not occur in Middle English to the writer’s knowledge, the water vessel being an ewwere or ewer ; see Boke of Curtasye, 641. It had, however, become common in Elizabethan English, as in the familiar Shakspearean phrase in Taming of Shrew, Iv. iv. 62, and Richard III. I. iv. 37. A. MACALISTER.
PITHOM (ons; B Medd, A Πιθώμ).---Τη Ex 1» it is said that the Israelites built for the Pharaoh of the Oppression the cities of ‘ Pithom and RAAMSES,’ to which the LXX adds, ‘and On, which is Helio- polis.’ They are called nis2p2 ὅν, usually rendered ‘treasure (AV) or store (RV) cities,’ but the exact signification of the term is doubtful, and the LXX makes it πόλεις ὀχυραί, ‘strong or fortified cities’ (see also 1 K 9:9, 2 Ch 84, where the same Heb. is tr., in the first passage 7. τῶν σκηνωμάτων, and in the second 7. ὀχυραί). The site of Pithom has been the subject of much controversy, which, however, has been finally set at rest by the excavations of Dr. Naville for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1883.