Jeremiah illustrates (Jer. xxxviii. I. '.< |. To he d id
to the pit was often to he lefl i" a slow death by starva- tion; and i" he saved from such a doom was regarded reatesl of all deliverances. Hence ii was used i ch. ix. 11). In the case ,. Reuben suggested the pit as a device for saving hi- brother; the others hostile to Joseph adopted it a- the ni"-i Becret, and. they might think, the leasl guilty method ol making away with him (Gen.xxxvii,
in this word, as in the cognate "XI . (which is likewise rendered pit in Gen.XlV, 10; Psa. lv. •.':'.: Ixix, 15; Prov. xxiii. 27), the special thought is that of a pii or well dug for water (Gesen. Thesaur. .-. \. I. The process of desynonymizing which ii- lo have confined the former i" the state of the well or cistern, dug into the
rock, bul ii" longer filled with water. Thus, where the
sciiM- iii In. ih cases is figurative, and the same English word is used, we have pii {beer) connected with the ••deep water," "the water-flood," " the deep" (Psa. Ixix,
16), while in pit ( ~"2) there is nothing hul I he •• miry
day" (Psa. xl,2). Its dreariest feature is thai there is '■no water" in it (Zech. ix. 1 1 t. So far the idea in- volved has been rather that of misery and despair than of death. But in the phrase "they thai go down to the pit" (*VI3) it becomes even more constantly than
\iiis noticed below (skeol, shackath) the rep- resentative of the world of the dead | Ezek. xxxi. II.
ii, 18, 24; Psa. xxviii, 1 ; cxliii, ?). There may have been tw.> reasons for this transfer: 1. The wide, deep excavation became iln- place of burial The
"graves "ere Bel ill the sides ol the pii" (Ml I I l"./'k.
xxxii. 24). T" one looking into it, it was visibly the I the dead, while the vaguer, more mysterious Sheol carried the thoughts further to an invisible home. '_'. The pit, however, in this sense, was never simply equivalent i" burial-place. There i- alwaj - implied in
and condemnation. Tin-, i
ipparently in the use made « - 1 i heii had ■ ii in t never bet n wells, or had lost . "i water. The prisoni t in the land of his ft to perish in 1 1"' pn (66i ) (Zech. ix. 11 . ' -i "I all deliverances i- that the cap-
leased from the slow death of starvation
in it (shachaih, Isa. Ii. 14). The history of Jeremiah, cast ini" the dun-eon or pit (b6r) (Jer. xxxviii, 6, 9),
l.i down i ii- depths with cords, sinking into the
filth at the l>"li"in i hen- also there i- ii" water), with .hath by hunger staring him in the face, shows how terrible an instrument "I punishment was such a pit.
The conditi f the Athenian primmer.- in the stone*
quarries "i Syracuse (Thuc vii, 87), the Persian pun- ishment of the airoBog (< 3 , the oubliettes of mediaeval prisons, present instances of cruelty more ..r less analogous. It is not strange that with these as- sociations of material horror clustering round, it should have involved more of the idea of a place of punish- ment for the haughty or unjust than did the sheol or the grave. See Wi-.u..
•_'. Shdchath, nniO, of which, as well as in the cognate nnittj, shuchah (rendered "pit" iii Prov. xx, 14; Jer. ii. 6 : xviii. 20, 22 ), MHO, ski ehuth (" pit," Prov. xxviii, 10), rTr. shechith ("p'it,"Lam.iv,20; "destruction," l*sa. cvii. 20), and ~~rt. shichdh ("pit," Psa. lvii. 6; cxix, 85; Jer. xviii, 22), as the root PVI13 slews, the sinking of the pit is the primary thought (Gesen. The- saur. s.v.). Ii is <\"'a into the earth (Psa. ix, 16; cxix, 85). A pit thus made and then covered lightly over, served a- a trap by which animals or men might he en- snared l Psa. xxxv, 7i. Ii thus became a type of sor- row and confusion, from which a man could not extri- cate himself, of the great doom which come- to all men. of the dreariness of death (Job xxxiii. 18, 24, 28, 30). I" "go down t" the pit" is t" die without hope. It is the penalty of evil-doers, that from which the righteous arc delivered by the hand of God. See Trap.
;;. s/,,ol. ;xr. in Numb. xvi. 30, ">:; : Job xvii, 1G. Here the word i- one which is used only of the hollow, shadowy world, the dwelling of the dead, and as such it has been treated of under IIki.i..
I. Other Hebrew words rendered pit iii the A. V. are the following: "".. gib, something cut out, hence a cis- tern in the rock (Jer. xiv,3); and the cognate X"'.. gebe (Isa. xxx. 1 1; Jer. xiv. 3); y?"<- gumdis, something dug ( only Ecclcs. x, 8) ; and "TIE. pdchath, an < xcava- tion (2 Sam. xvii. 9; xviii. 17: Isa. xxiv. 17. 18; Jer. xh iii. 43, 1 1 : •• hole,"' Jer. xlviii, 28; " snare." Sam. iii, 47). The term mdhamor6th,\ ^~*?. rendered "deep pits" (Psa. cxl, 10), properly signifies streams, whirl- pools, abysses of water. 1 he rabbins. Symmachus, and Jerome understood pits of water.