Bible Strands
Genesis 37:24
and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joseph’s brothers act immediately after stripping his robe, depositing him into a pit before they pause to eat a meal. The words — The text emphasizes בּוֹר (bor/pit) and רֵק (rek/empty) to specify that the brothers cast Joseph into a dry cistern devoid of water. The thread — This waterless pit motif recurs in Jeremiah 38:6 where Jeremiah is dropped into a cistern, Psalms 130:1 as a metaphor for deep distress, and Zechariah 9:11 referencing prisoners released from a waterless pit. Why it lands — The text states the pit contained no water, establishing that Joseph’s abandonment was intentional and total, leaving him without rescue or sustenance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Psalms 130:1 A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Zechariah 9:11 As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
- Psalms 35:7 For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
- Psalms 40:2 He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
- Psalms 88:6 You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.
- Psalms 88:8 You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Lamentations 3:52 Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
- Lamentations 4:20 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.”