Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CISTERN

Subterranean receptacles to collect and store the runoff water from seasonal rains. They are distinguished from open water storage facilities, which are more appropriately called pools or reservoirs, and from wells, which tap the water of underground aquifers.

The typical bottle-shaped cistern with a narrow neck expanding into a larger storage area dates to the 4th millennium b.c.e. The interior was often lined with plaster. A raised circular stone collar was erected around the mouth of the cistern, and a heavy removable stone covered it to reduce evaporation and keep out debris. Cisterns located in wadi beds were filled by seasonal floods, while hillside cisterns received runoff channeled to them from the watershed. Marks on cistern collars indicate that water was drawn directly from them into skin or pottery containers on ropes. Cisterns varied in shape and size. Private, household cisterns tended to be small and bottle-shaped, while those serving whole communities, such as Arad and Masada, were large, rectangular enclosures, often with steps leading to the water level. Frequently caves in hillsides were enlarged and used as cisterns.

The Bible refers to cisterns (Heb. bôr) in passages describing wealth and the bounty of the land (Deut. 6:11; 2 Kgs. 18:31 = Isa. 36:16; 2 Chr. 26:10). They are not subject to ritual impurity (Lev. 11:36). The Israelites hid from the Philistines in cisterns (1 Sam. 13:6), Jeremiah was imprisoned in one (Jer. 38:1-13), and a cistern became the grave of those slain by Ishmael in his revolt against Gedaliah (41:7-9). Cisterns are used figuratively as symbols for rejection of God (Jer. 2:13), the judgment of God (14:3), and mortality (Eccl. 12:6).

James H. Pace

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CISTERN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)