PIT
A deep or sunken place, either natural or artificial. The pits of bitumen into which the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell were evidently natural sunken places in the area (Gen. 14:10); whereas the pit into which Joseph’s brothers threw him was evidently a man-made waterpit.—Gen. 37:20-29.
The Hebrew word sheʼohlʹ is translated “pit” three times in the Authorized Version. (Num. 16:30, 33; Job 17:16) While Sheol actually refers to the common grave of all mankind rather than to an individual grave, the word “pit” does convey to some extent the meaning of Sheol, which is that of a “hollow place.” In Job 17:13-16 we find Sheol and the pit used in a parallel sense by Job as places of darkness and dust. Similarly, David’s prayer to God at Psalm 30:3 says: “O Jehovah, you have brought up my soul from Sheol itself; you have kept me alive, that I should not go down into the pit.” In Psalm 88:3-5 reference is made to Sheol, the pit, and the burial place in that order.—See also Job 33:18-30; Psalm 30:3, 9; 49:7-10, 15; 88:6; 143:7; Proverbs 1:12; Isaiah 14:9-15; 38:17, 18; 51:14; see GRAVE; SHEOL.
Jonah also used the word for “pit” in a figurative sense when he referred to his position in the belly of the great fish as the “pit,” as well as calling it the “belly of Sheol.”—Jonah 2:2-6.
Such association of the pit with death and the grave was quite natural in view of the ancient custom of using or excavating a pit as a grave site.
Pits were evidently used as a means of trapping or ensnaring an enemy or for catching animals, and so are used in a figurative sense to stand for dangerous situations or intrigues besetting God’s servants. (Ps. 7:15; 40:2; 57:6; Prov. 26:27; 28:10; Jer. 18:20, 22) Sometimes the pits were netted to enmesh the victim caught in them. (Ps. 35:7, 8) According to the Law, if a domestic animal fell into an excavated pit, the owner of the pit was required to make compensation to the owner if the animal died.—Ex. 21:33, 34.
In a similar sense a prostitute and the “mouth of strange women” are spoken of as a “deep pit.”—Prov. 22:14; 23:27.
The cisterns used by the Hebrews and other Orientals to store water were basically excavated pits. These were often bottle-shaped; the mouth was generally narrow, only a foot or so wide for the first three or four feet down, and then the lower part widened out into a bulbous-shaped cavity.
The Greek word phreʹar, “pit,” in the expression at Revelation 9:1, 2, “pit of the abyss,” is the same word that John uses in his Gospel account to describe the “well” at Jacob’s fountain where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. (John 4:11, 12) Phreʹar in its simplest meaning refers to such a well or pit dug in the earth, and, thus, may be used in referring to any pit or abyss, including the unfathomable one from which the locusts of the Revelation ascend.—Rev. 9:3; see ABYSS.
Peter, in 2 Peter 2:4, speaks of the demon angels as confined to “pits of dense darkness.”—See TARTARUS.