JEREMIAH AND PITS

Jeremiah was the perfect author to pen Lamentations since the events of his whole adult life were bound to leave him depressed. He certainly could not be held up as the poster child for the Prosperity Gospel. And perhaps the low point in his existence was the time (or times) he was thrown into a dry cistern to die. This experience may have made such an impression on the prophet that it accounts for the number of times he refers to “pits” in his writings. There are actually three different Hebrew root words that Jeremiah uses, each with a slightly different nuance.

Bor / Be'er

Out of some 64 occurrences in the OT, bor most frequently refers to literal holes or pits in the ground dug for the purpose of storing water, grain and other dry goods, and even prisoners...The cistern was a source of hope and life when water was in it but became a place of death and judgment when empty.” (Beyer and Merrill)

Whitcomb explains, “Many cisterns are found in Palestine, where rainfall is scarce from May to September. They are usually pear-shaped with a small opening at the top which can be sealed to prevent accidents.”

Beyer notes that besides its literal usage, it also has several figurative meanings, such as a pit of corruption, a prostitute or wayward wife, or a well of flowing water. “The deep or corrupt pit represented a place from which one could not easily escape.”

Jeremiah 2:13 – “Israel, who had available the full resources of their God Yahweh, the spring of living water, turned aside to worthless substitutes, to trust themselves to powerless deities [“cracked cisterns which can hold no water”] which, in the end, could not meet their deep spiritual needs.” (J.A. Thompson) D.R. Jones adds, “This passage points to the fundamental question of discernment of truth and commitment, which the prophets from Elijah onwards had asked.”

Jeremiah 14:3 – In this literal use of “cistern” Jeremiah notes that during a period of drought in the land, the king sends his servants out for water but they come back quite dejected since the cisterns are all dry.

Jeremiah 37-38 – Next we come to the most memorable uses (7x) of “pit” in the book, the one or two times Jeremiah is literally thrown into a pit or pits. I mention the latter possibility since one of his “jails” appears to be a dry cistern while the other one is literally called “the house of the pit,” possibly indicating a vaulted dungeon cell (Jer. 37:16). But the text is a bit confusing, with the prophet being hauled in and out of captivity. There are two schools of thought concerning these chapters. D.R. Jones brings up the possibility that these may contain two parallel accounts of the same events. However, he personally stresses the differences between the two narratives instead.

By contrast, we have the opinion of John Bright: “It is, of course, quite possible to understand this as a consecutive account of the events. Nevertheless, the reader is bound to be struck by a certain repetitiousness: everything seems to happen to Jeremiah twice!...For these reasons it seems to me – though I am not inclined to insist upon it – that much is to be said for the view that xxxvii 11-21 and xxxviii 1-28a are slightly divergent, but complementary and not essentially disharmonious accounts of the same series of events.”

Whichever of the two views is correct, it is very obvious that Jeremiah was subjected to some rather traumatic events at the hands of his enemies.

Pahat

“The basic meaning is of a depression or hole in the ground, often a hunting trap. However, the terms are more typically used in metaphorical sense, denoting sudden, unforeseen destruction that awaits a nation or individual...Pit may refer to nothing more than a depression of hole in the ground (2 Sam 17:9, Jer 48:28, cave)...Although the concept of a pit as a trap was distinguished from Sheol, when pit was used as a metaphor, it gained force from certain similarities with the netherworld.” (J.T. Strong)

Jeremiah 48:28 – In an oracle against Moab, God tells the inhabitants to leave their cities and live among the holes in the rocks like doves.

Jeremiah 48:43-44 – As a continuation of the diatribe against Moab, God uses the word three times in succession: “Terror, pit and trap are before you...Everyone who flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and every one who climbs out of the trap shall be caught in the trap.” The first phrase is rendered in the Anchor Bible as “terror and trapfall and trap” as an “attempt to catch the assonance of pahad wapahat wapah.” (Bright) A slight variation of this phrase also appears in Isaiah 24:17-18.

Lamentations 3:47 – The prophet summarizes the plight of Israel with the words: “Before us lie hunter's panic and pit, devastation and ruin.” And earlier in the same chapter (vv. 5-7) Jeremiah even personalizes his complaint by comparing God with a jailer who hems him in on every side.

Suha / Siha / Sehith

“Suha is used 2x in the OT to mean a pit (Jer 2:6 and Ps 35:8), such as is used to catch larger animals...It is a great danger, even to unwary travelers. The metaphorical use flows from this sense of danger, and in the long term comes to mean a hidden danger in the path of one's spiritual or physical journey...Jer 18:20,22 refers to the attempts of his enemies to trap Jeremiah, and one cannot but remember his time at the bottom of the dried-up well (Jer 38:6)...Siha, pit, is parallel to suha in Jer 18:22.” (Domeris)

The idea of the wicked laying a trap for the righteous only to fall into it themselves is also found in Psalm 35:7-8; 7:15.” (The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

Jeremiah 2:6 – “Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt...through a land of deserts and of pits...? This is an example of the word used to convey naturally occurring pitfalls in treacherous terrain. Other translations of the italicized word in this verse are “shifting sands” (NEB), “ravine(s)” (NIV, AB), “sand pits” (TEV), and “death valleys” (The Message).

Jeremiah 18:20,22 – The prophet complains to God concerning the way the people have turned against him because of his attempts to warn them of coming danger. He says in v. 20, “Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life.” Thompson puts it this way: “Jeremiah's intercessory role on behalf of his people was not matched by gratitude from the people.” I am reminded of Ibsen's play “The Enemy of the People” for a similar theme.

A variation on v. 20 appears two verses later: “For they have dug a pit to catch me, and laid snares for my feet.” Because of this similarity, Bright notes that some scholars feel 18:20 should be omitted as a duplicate.

Jeremiah 41:7-9 – In this narrative portion of the book we are introduced to a bloodthirsty character named Ishmael, who meets some pilgrims, murders them for no apparent reason and throws them in the large cistern built by King Asa. Cisterns were “a favorite place for oppressors to dispose of their victims, whether living or dead...Excavations at Tell-en Nasbeh may have brought the cistern in question to light.”

Lamentations 3:53 – It is passages such as the above which have given rise to the more metaphorical usage found in this verse where “cistern” is equated with Sheol, the land of the dead. DBI also points to OT passages such as Genesis 37:20; II Kings 10:14, 13:21; and Psalms 5:9;

Lamentations 4:20 – Jeremiah uses the rare word sehith in this verse, which explains how the ruler of the country himself was targeted by the enemy. Hillers states that “the form is slightly suspect, but the meaning [“trap] is not seriously in question.” Provan comments: “His loss is a devastating one. Far from enabling the people to live safely among the nations, he himself has been ensnared by them.”