the Roman province of Galatia in 25 B.C.E., and in 6 B.C.E. colonies in the area were garrisoned to hold the people in check. These colonies were directed from Antioch, a city near the border between Pisidia and Phrygia. (See ANTIOCH No. 2.) In 74 C.E. the southern part of Pisidia was combined with Pamphylia and Lycia into a Roman province. The northern section remained part of the province of Galatia until, in post-apostolic times, it was enlarged in a separate province bearing the name of Pisidia.

The apostle Paul passed through Pisidia on his first missionary tour, traveling from coastal Pamphylia over the mountains to Pisidian Antioch. (Acts 13:13, 14) He also passed through Pisidia on the return trip. (Acts 14:21, 24) The bandits and rushing mountain rivers of the area might well have been a basis for Paul’s statement that he had been in “dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen.”—2 Cor. 11:26; see map on page 147.

PISPAH

(Pisʹpah).

A leading Asherite; son of Jether.—1 Chron. 7:38, 40.

PISTACHIO NUT

The Hebrew word bot·nimʹ is generally understood to designate the fruit of the Pistacia vera tree. This deciduous tree thrives in dry areas and seldom reaches a height in excess of thirty feet (9 meters). The nuts measure about one-half to three-fourths of an inch (1.3 to 1.9 centimeters) in length and grow in large clusters. The thin, but hard, light-colored shell of ripe pistachio nuts is covered with a somewhat wrinkly husk. Each nut contains one yellow-green kernel surrounded by thin reddish skin. The kernel has a mild, sweet flavor, and is commonly eaten raw or fried. Sometimes kernels are pressed for oil, and ground kernels are used for confectionery items.

Pistachio nuts were among the “finest products of the land” of Canaan that were brought as a gift by Jacob’s sons to one who was a ruler in Egypt. (Gen. 43:11) Even in modern times large quantities of pistachio nuts have been exported from parts of the Middle East.

The city of Betonim, situated E of the Jordan in the territory of Gad, appears to have been named after pistachio nuts.—Josh. 13:24, 26.

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 sh^eʼohlʹ 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.

PITCH

The Hebrew word zeʹpheth is generally believed to refer to mineral pitch, the sticky and liquid form of bitumen. Bitumen is the solid state of this dark-colored hydrocarbon similar to what is generally called tar.—See BITUMEN.

Mineral pitch is highly flammable and, unless kept well supplied with air, gives off great quantities of smoke when burning. Filling Edom’s torrents with pitch and causing the land to become “burning pitch” with smoke ascending to time indefinite, would be a fitting picture of devastating destruction. (Isa. 34:9, 10) This description also helps to identify the substance, for Edom was near the Dead Sea, and even today bitumen is occasionally washed up on its shores, evidently coming from deposits now covered by the sea.

According to Exodus 2:3 the papyrus ark in which Moses was concealed was coated with both “bitumen and pitch.” Jewish commentator Rashi suggested that this meant bitumen on the inside and pitch on the outside. Or it could mean a mixture of two different consistencies of the same basic substance. For instance, in The Land and the Book (Vol. I, 1859 ed., p. 336) W. M. Thomson suggests that Exodus 2:3 “reveals the process by which they prepared the bitumen. The mineral, as found in this country, melts readily enough by itself; but then, when cold, it is as brittle as glass. It must be mixed with tar while melting, and in that way it forms a hard, glassy wax, perfectly impervious to water.” The Greek Septuagint uses the single term a·sphal·toʹpis·sa, a compound of asphalt and pitch. In parts of the Near East mineral pitch has been used even in recent times as a coating for certain sailing vessels.

PITHOM

(Piʹthom).

One of two storage cities built by the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, the other being Raamses. (Ex. 1:11) The name Pithom is generally thought to have some relation to the Egyptian name Pr-Tm, meaning “house of (the god) Tem.” On this basis two locations have been suggested for Pithom, both in the Wadi Tumilat of the eastern delta region. From 1883 on, as a result of excavations there, Tell el-Maskhutah in the eastern end of this wadi was considered the most likely location. Ramses II is supposed to have built or rebuilt the city located on that site. However, in more recent years some of the claims made for this place have been found doubtful, as, for example, the supposed evidence for large storage chambers, later Egyptologists holding that these were only foundation structures of a fortress. At present, scholars generally favor Tell el-Ratabah, a few miles