Hebrew word · H7745

שׁוּחָה

shuchah

pit

A pit or trench dug in the ground, especially a trap-pit for catching animals. In poetry it is also a picture for disaster and for the descent toward death. Related words are shaḥat ('pit, grave') and shiḥah ('pitfall').

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

pit

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 Proverbs 22:14

Range of meaning

A pit or trench dug in the ground, especially a trap-pit for catching animals. In poetry it is also a picture for disaster and for the descent toward death. Related words are shaḥat ('pit, grave') and shiḥah ('pitfall').

Against the English

English 'pit' is accurate. What English readers may miss is that this is a hunter's pit: hidden, deliberately dug, and deadly. It is not just a hole.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact phrase shuḥah ʿamuqqah ('a deep pit') comes back in Proverbs 23:27: 'a deep pit is a prostitute, a narrow well the foreign woman.' Jeremiah 18:20, 22 uses shuḥah for a pit dug to catch someone. Ezekiel 19:4, 8 describes a lion caught in a pit (shaḥat). This was a known way of trapping big animals in the ancient Near East.

From the study of Jeremiah 18:22

Range of meaning

A pit or deep hole, especially one dug and hidden to trap animals. It is used as an image for deadly danger: the 'deep pit' of the forbidden woman's mouth (Proverbs 22:14; 23:27).

Against the English

English versions agree on 'pit'. None of them shows that the written text could be read differently.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Jeremiah 18:20 and 18:22 the written consonants are שיחה, while the reading tradition says shuchah, 'pit'. The Greek Septuagint renders v. 22 roughly as 'they undertook a word for my seizing', which seems to read the consonants as siḥah, 'talk, scheming' (compare v. 18: 'come, let us strike him with the tongue').

From the study of Jeremiah 18:20

Range of meaning

A pit or pitfall: a hole dug in the ground and often covered over, used to trap animals. It is also used figuratively for a deadly trap, and for the seductive 'deep pit' of the forbidden woman in Proverbs 22:14 and 23:27.

Against the English

English 'pit' can sound like any hole. The Hebrew picture is a hunter's hidden trap, dug ahead of time. It points to a premeditated, hidden plan to kill.

Used elsewhere in the period

The pitfall appears in Proverbs 22:14 and 23:27, and a closely related word (shiḥah) in Psalm 57:6 and 119:85 ('the arrogant have dug pits for me'). Jeremiah 18:22 repeats the image ('they have dug a pit to catch me and hidden snares for my feet'), and there the scribes' marginal reading changes shuḥah to shiḥah. Proverbs 26:27 and Psalm 7:15 state the principle that the one who digs a pit falls into it. Jeremiah was later lowered into an actual muddy cistern (38:6), though that passage uses a different word (bor).

Similar words

Where it appears

Proverbs · 2

  1. Proverbs 22:14 שׁוּחָ֣ה [is] a pit

    The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

    Here: A dug pit, the kind used as a trap for animals, and a common picture for the way down to death. It comes first in the Hebrew, so the hearer sees the pit before learning what it stands for.

  2. Proverbs 23:27 שׁוּחָ֣ה [is] a pit

    For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

Jeremiah · 3

  1. Jeremiah 2:6 וְשׁוּחָה֙ and pit

    They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

    Here: A pit or chasm. Elsewhere it is a pit dug to trap someone (Jer 18:20, 22). Here it means ground full of gullies, crevices and pitfalls, dangerous to cross. It also rhymes with ʿarabah.

  2. Jeremiah 18:20 שׁוּחָ֖ה a pit

    Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

    Here: A hunter's pit-trap, dug and hidden so that prey falls in. It is a stock picture in Psalms and Proverbs for a plot to destroy someone.

  3. Jeremiah 18:22 שׁוּחָה֙ a pit

    Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

    Here: A pit dug and hidden to trap game. The written consonants could also be read as siḥah, 'talk', which matters in the textual notes.

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