Topic
Cistern
12 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1897 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Proverbs 5:15Easton · Nave FIGURATIVE
¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
- Ecclesiastes 12:6Smith · Nave FIGURATIVE
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
- Isaiah 36:16Easton · Nave General scriptures concerning
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
- Jeremiah 2:13Easton · Nave Broken
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
- Jeremiah 38:6Easton · Smith
Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
- Genesis 37:22Smith
And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
- Genesis 37:24Easton
And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
- Numbers 21:22Easton
Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders.
- 2 Kings 18:31Nave FIGURATIVE
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
- Psalms 40:2Easton
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
- Psalms 69:15Easton
Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
- Lamentations 3:53Easton
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 9 references
The rendering of a Hebrew word bor, which means a receptacle for water conveyed to it; distinguished from beer, which denotes a place where water rises on the spot (Jer. 2:13; Prov. 5:15; Isa. 36:16), a fountain. Cisterns are frequently mentioned in Scripture. The scarcity of springs in Palestine made it necessary to collect rain-water in reservoirs and cisterns (Num. 21:22). (See WELL.)
Empty cisterns were sometimes used as prisons (Jer. 38:6; Lam. 3:53; Ps. 40:2; 69:15). The “pit” into which Joseph was cast (Gen. 37:24) was a beer or dry well. There are numerous remains of ancient cisterns in all parts of Palestine.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 3 references
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.