Cistern

A cistern is a pit that holds rainwater, and the Bible treats it as a daily necessity. In 2 Kings 18:31 an Assyrian officer tempts the people of Jerusalem to give up, promising each person the waters of his own cistern. Proverbs 5:15 uses the same picture for faithfulness at home: “Drink waters out of thine own cistern.” Wells are a happier image in Isaiah 12:3, which says that with joy people shall draw water out of the wells of salvation. Jeremiah 15:18 gives the other side, a prophet who feels his source is like waters that fail. Read Proverbs 5 and Isaiah 12 together.

4 verses

2 Kings

2 Kings 18:31

Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:

Proverbs

Proverbs 5:15

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

Isaiah

Isaiah 12:3

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 15:18

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

The rendering of a Hebrew word bor, which means a receptacle for water conveyed to it; distinguished from beer, which denotes a place where water rises on the spot (Jer. 2:13; Prov. 5:15; Isa. 36:16), a fountain. Cisterns are frequently mentioned in Scripture. The scarcity of springs in Palestine made it necessary to collect rain-water in reservoirs and cisterns (Num. 21:22). (See WELL.)

Empty cisterns were sometimes used as prisons (Jer. 38:6; Lam. 3:53; Ps. 40:2; 69:15). The “pit” into which Joseph was cast (Gen. 37:24) was a beer or dry well. There are numerous remains of ancient cisterns in all parts of Palestine.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

a receptacle for water, either conducted from an external spring or proceeding from rain-fall. The dryness of the summer months and the scarcity of springs in Judea made cisterns a necessity, and they are frequent throughout the whole of Syria and Palestine. On the long-forgotten way from Jericho to Bethel, "broken cisterns" of high antiquity are found at regular intervals. Jerusalem depends mainly for water upon its cisterns, of which almost every private house possesses one or more, excavated in the rock on which the city is built. The cisterns have usually a round opening at the top, sometimes built up with stonework above and furnished with a curb and a wheel for a bucket. (Ecclesiastes 12:6) Empty cisterns were sometimes used as prisons and places of confinement. Joseph was cast into a "pit," (Genesis 37:22) as was Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 38:6)