What does "Cistern" mean in the Bible?
The face of the country and the rarity of rain between May and September made cisterns indispensable in Judgea. Cistern appears in 9 verses across 3 books of the Bible.
What does the Bible say about Cistern?
CIS'TERN . The face of the country and the rarity of rain between May and September made cisterns indispensable in Judgea. They were mostly private property. Num 21:22. Some were formed by merely excavating the earth; others were covered reservoirs, into which the water was conducted; and others still were lined with wood or cement, or hewn out of the rock with great labor and ornamented with much skill. When the pits were empty there was a tenacious mire at the bottom, and they were used as the places of the most cruel punishments. It was into such a pit, probably, that Joseph and Jeremiah were cast. Gen 37:22; Jer 38:6. Large cisterns are now found in Palestine at intervals of 15 or 20 miles. One of them is described by a modern traveller to be 660 feet long by 270 broad. These cisterns were the chief dependence of the people for water; hence the force of the allusion. Jer 2:13. The city of Jerusalem was remarkably well supplied with water, so that during her many sieges her inhabitants never suffered from thirst. See Conduit. Various illustrations from the cistern are given in Scripture. A wheel was used to draw up the bucket, and "the wheel broken at the cistern," in Eccl 12:6, denotes the breaking up of the vital powers of the human body. An exhortation to due restraint in pleasure is indicated by "Drink waters out of thine own cistern." Prov 5:15.
Definition text: Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible · 1898. Public domain.
Compiled by Protos: the verse list on this page. Where one name belongs to more than one person or place, each of them gets a separate entry.
What is the Hebrew word for Cistern?
Where does Cistern appear in the Bible?
Cistern is referenced in 9 verses across 3 books. Every passage below is about this one, not just every verse the word turns up in.
- Jeremiah 38:6
- Jeremiah 38:7
- Jeremiah 38:9
- Jeremiah 38:10
- Jeremiah 38:11
- Jeremiah 38:13
- Jeremiah 41:7
- Leviticus 11:36
- Proverbs 5:15
What else appears in these passages?
These turn up in the same passages as Cistern.
Common questions
How many times does the Bible mention Cistern?
Cistern appears in 9 verses across 3 books, most often in Jeremiah, which accounts for 7 of them.
Which books of the Bible mention Cistern?
Jeremiah, Leviticus, Proverbs.
Where can I read every verse about Cistern?
This page lists 9 of them. Protos carries all 9, and opens this entry on the verse you are reading rather than in a separate tab.
