Hebrew word · H6354

פַּ֫חַת

fachat

pit

Pit, hole, cavity in the ground. A rare word, used fewer than a dozen times in the Hebrew Bible.

Appears 10 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

pit, hole

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 Isaiah 24:17

Range of meaning

Pit, hole, cavity in the ground. A rare word, used fewer than a dozen times in the Hebrew Bible.

Against the English

Most versions say "pit." YLT says "snare," which loses the distinct picture of falling down into a hole. NLT's "traps" also blurs it.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Samuel 17:9 speaks of David hiding in a pachat, and 2 Samuel 18:17 of Absalom's body being thrown into a great one in the forest. Jeremiah 48:43-44 uses it in the same three-word saying, and Lamentations 3:47 pairs it with pachad: "terror and pit."

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 2

  1. 2 Samuel 17:9 הַפְּחָתִ֔ים the ravines

    Surely by now he is hiding in a cave or some other location. If some of your troops fall first, whoever hears of it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’

  2. 2 Samuel 18:17 הַפַּ֣חַת the pit

    They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 24:17 וָפַ֖חַת and pit

    Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth.

    Here: A hole in the ground, here pictured as a hunter's pit that an animal blunders into. The word sounds almost the same as the one before it, so terror seems to turn straight into the pit.

  2. Isaiah 24:18 הַפַּ֔חַת הַפַּ֔חַת the pit

    Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Jeremiah · 4

  1. Jeremiah 48:28 פָֽחַת׃ a ravine

    Abandon the towns and settle among the rocks, O dwellers of Moab! Be like a dove that nests at the mouth of a cave.

  2. Jeremiah 48:43 וָפַ֖חַת and pit

    Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of Moab,” declares the LORD.

  3. Jeremiah 48:44 הַפַּ֔חַת הַפַּ֔חַת the pit

    “Whoever flees the panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For I will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:47 וָפַ֛חַת and a pit

    Panic and pitfall have come upon us—devastation and destruction.

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