Places & biblical world
Cistern
A reservoir dug to hold water; empty pits also appear as places where people are confined.
Also called · pit · water reservoir
What it means
In Jeremiah 2, God rebukes the people for abandoning him, the spring of living water, and making broken cisterns that cannot hold water. The failed reservoir illustrates their choice of something unable to sustain them.
In Jeremiah 38, Jeremiah is lowered by ropes into a pit with mud but no water. Ebedmelech obtains the king’s permission and has him place old cloths under his arms before pulling him out with ropes.
How it appears in the Bible
Genesis 37 describes Joseph’s brothers throwing him into an empty pit without water. John 4’s well is a different scene, where Jesus distinguishes its water from the water he gives for eternal life.
Translation note
The selected World English Bible uses cisterns in Jeremiah 2, dungeon in Jeremiah 38, and pit in Genesis 37. Read the storage function and confinement scenes in their own contexts.