444. The "Pit"

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There are several Hebrew words which are rendered in our version by the word “pit.” The ordinary method of burial being in a grave dug in the earth, or hewn out of the rock, the phrase “go down into the pit” became synonymous with death and the grave. Solomon represents those who are trying to entice the innocent youth into ways of wickedness as saying, “Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit” (Prov. 1:1212Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: (Proverbs 1:12)). Hezekiah on his song of thanksgiving for the recovery of his health, says, “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth” (Isa. 38:1818For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. (Isaiah 38:18)). In these two passages the parallel members of the sentence explain each other. The phrase referred to is of frequent occurrence in Scripture. See, for example, Job 17:16; 33:2416They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust. (Job 17:16)
24Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24); Psalm 28:1; 30:3; 143:71<<A Psalm of David.>> Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. (Psalm 28:1)
3O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. (Psalm 30:3)
7Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. (Psalm 143:7); Ezekiel 26:20; 28:8; 31:14; 32:1820When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; (Ezekiel 26:20)
8They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. (Ezekiel 28:8)
14To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. (Ezekiel 31:14)
18Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. (Ezekiel 32:18).