A pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or a prison)
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H953 is a Hebrew noun for a dug pit and can designate a cistern or well, a dungeon or place of confinement, a trap, or figuratively the depths associated with death. Genesis 37:20 records Joseph's brothers planning to kill him and throw him into a pit, later using the empty cistern to confine him before sale.
Reader summary
Full entry for בּוֹר (H953) · Open the biblical lexicon
H953 is a Hebrew noun for a dug pit and can designate a cistern or well, a dungeon or place of confinement, a trap, or figuratively the depths associated with death. Genesis 37:20 records Joseph's brothers planning to kill him and throw him into a pit, later using the empty cistern to confine him before sale.
The BSB source-word alignment has 67 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to the Pit (13), the cistern (5), . . . (4), a pit (4), of the pit (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 37:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (11), Ezekiel (10), Genesis (9), Psalms (7).
H953 is a Hebrew noun for a dug pit and can designate a cistern or well, a dungeon or place of confinement, a trap, or figuratively the depths associated with death. Genesis 37:20 records Joseph's brothers planning to kill him and throw him into a pit, later using the empty cistern to confine him before sale. Exodus 21:33-34 requires restitution when someone opens or digs a pit, fails to cover it, and an animal falls in, making hazard ownership explicit.
Zechariah 9:11 promises release of prisoners from a waterless pit because of covenant blood. Other passages describe stored water, imprisonment, massacre sites, self-made traps, lament, and nations descending to the Pit. H953 opens provision, danger, captivity, negligence, death, and rescue. It corrects romantic pit-to-palace preaching that rushes past betrayal and trauma, as well as careless systems that leave foreseeable hazards uncovered and shift the cost to those who fall.
H953 names a hole dug into the ground, with uses ranging from life-sustaining cistern or well to dangerous pit, dungeon, grave-like depth, or figurative realm of the dead. Contents, construction, and human action determine whether the pit provides, confines, traps, or symbolizes downfall.
“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”
Joseph's brothers propose murder and concealment in a pit as they conspire against his life and dreams.
If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
The law names responsibility when a person opens or digs a pit and fails to cover the foreseeable hazard.
As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
God promises covenant-grounded release for prisoners held in a waterless pit under His care.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. A pit or cistern; figuratively, a place of confinement, death, or divine entrapment of the wicked
A pit or cistern; figuratively, a place of confinement, death, or divine entrapment of the wicked
a pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or a prison) BDB: pit Usage: cistern, dungeon, fountain, pit, well.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 68 lexical occurrence verses.
בּוֹר is built from these roots:
The descent to the pit underscores irreversible humiliation.Isaiah 14:12-15
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H953 can hold water or hold a person, and that contrast makes stewardship visible. Cisterns support households, agriculture, and cities in dry country. An uncovered excavation, however, can kill an animal, and Torah assigns restitution to the person responsible for the hazard. Joseph's brothers turn a pit into an instrument of betrayal and concealment. His later rise does not make their violence a good method or erase the years of enslavement, accusation, and confinement.
Lamentations gives voice to being dropped alive into a pit, while Zechariah announces release for waterless-pit prisoners. The biblical movement toward rescue should deepen attention to those still confined. Churches can inspect physical, financial, relational, and procedural hazards before someone falls. They should preserve evidence, report abuse, compensate damage where appropriate, and create real routes out of coercive control.
Pit imagery can describe despair, but caregivers should not assume a single spiritual cause or replace clinical help with a sermon. God hears from the depths and can deliver, while accountable neighbors cover hazards and help prisoners reach safety.
Exod.21.33
H953 is a noun for a dug pit whose practical uses include cistern, well, dungeon, and trap. With death and descent language it can take a grave-like or underworld force, while water vocabulary often signals a life-sustaining installation.
New Testament pit and abyss imagery develops judgment and confinement themes, while resurrection proclaims deliverance from death. Joseph's pattern of suffering and preservation may illuminate providence but should not be used to excuse perpetrators or predict identical outcomes.