Hebrew word · H1360

גֶּ֫בֶא

ugeva'av

cistern

A pool, pond or cistern: a collection of standing water. Isaiah 30:14 speaks of a shard too small 'to scoop water from a cistern (gebe')'.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) cistern, pool

1a) cistern

1b) pool, marsh

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 47:11

Range of meaning

A pool, pond or cistern: a collection of standing water. Isaiah 30:14 speaks of a shard too small 'to scoop water from a cistern (gebe')'.

Against the English

BSB/NIV/ESV/WEB 'marshes', KJV 'marishes' (an old spelling of 'marshes'), YLT 'marshy places'. 'Pools' or 'ponds' would be closer, since the word points to pockets of collected water, not reed-beds.

Used elsewhere in the period

It is rare in the Hebrew Bible (also Isa 30:14). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'cistern, pool'.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 30:14 מִגֶּֽבֶא׃ פ from a cistern

    It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”

    Here: A collecting basin or pool of water. Elsewhere it is used of marshy pools (Ezek 47:11). Even this simplest job, dipping water, cannot be done with what is left.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 47:11 וּגְבָאָ֛יו and marshes its

    But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.

    Here: 'And its pools': pockets of standing water cut off from the main flow. Paired with 'swamps', it describes the shallow, stagnant margins of the sea, as opposed to the open water the river reaches.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.