Hebrew word · H7825

שְׁחִית

bishchitotam

pit

'Pit', especially a trap-pit. It is closely related to shachat, the common word for a pit, the grave, or a hunter's pit (Psalm 7:15; 35:7; Ezekiel 19:4, 8). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'pit' and connect it with a root meaning 'sink down'. Only two occurrences are certain: here and Psalm 107:20.

Appears 2 times in 2 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 Lamentations 4:20

Range of meaning

'Pit', especially a trap-pit. It is closely related to shachat, the common word for a pit, the grave, or a hunter's pit (Psalm 7:15; 35:7; Ezekiel 19:4, 8). Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'pit' and connect it with a root meaning 'sink down'. Only two occurrences are certain: here and Psalm 107:20.

Against the English

Most versions have 'pits'. NIV has 'traps' and NLT 'snares', which bring out the hunting sense but lose the image of a pit.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel 19 is a lament over Judah's last kings, pictured as young lions: 'he was caught in their pit' (v. 4, b'shachtam nitpas; again v. 8). The image is almost the same as here. The Septuagint read the word as 'destructions'. The Vulgate turned it into 'in our sins', a moralising interpretation.

From the study of Psalm 107:20

Range of meaning

Rare: pit, trap-pit (Lamentations 4:20). It is related to the common noun shaḥat, 'pit, grave', and connected by sound, and perhaps by root, to the verb shāḥat, 'to ruin, destroy'. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) list 'pit' as the meaning.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'destructions', following the 'ruin' root. To a modern ear that sounds like general damage or disaster. BSB has 'the Pit', which some readers hear as hell. WEB 'graves' and NIV 'the grave' are closer to the picture.

How it drifted

The KJV's choice follows the Septuagint and Vulgate ('corruptions', 'destructions'). The capital-P 'Pit' in modern versions can suggest a fixed place of punishment, a later idea, when the Hebrew pit is simply the grave or the realm of the dead.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lamentations 4:20 (bishḥîtôtām, 'in their pits'). Compare shaḥat in Psalm 16:10, 30:9, 103:4 ('who redeems your life from the pit') and Job 33:18–30, a close parallel in which a sick man is brought back 'from the pit' by a messenger. The Septuagint renders the word diaphthora, 'decay'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 107:20 מִשְּׁחִיתוֹתָֽם׃ from pits their

    He sent forth His word and healed them; He rescued them from the Pit.

    Here: "From their pits." The word is rare. It appears only here and in Lamentations 4:20, where someone is 'caught in their pits'. With 'gates of death' just before (v. 18), it means the grave-pit they were sliding into: dying, not damnation. The plural 'their pits' gives each sufferer his own brink of death.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 4:20 בִּשְׁחִיתוֹתָ֑ם in pits their

    The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

    Here: 'In their pits': hunters' pits dug to trap animals. 'Their' means the pursuers of verse 19. The word is rare and appears elsewhere only in Psalm 107:20.

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