Cistern

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningIsaiah 36:16
• BrokenJeremiah 2:13
• FIGURATIVE2 Kings 18:31Proverbs 5:15Ecclesiastes 12:6
• See Wells

The passages, in Bible order (5)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 5 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. 2 Kings 18:31

   Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,

   ›Commentary on 2 Kings 18:312 voices

   “Make an agreement ... - Rather, “Make peace with me.” The word, which primarily means “blessing,” and secondarily “a gift,” has also the meaning, though more rarely, of “peace.” Probably it acquired this meaning from the fact that a peace was commonly purchased by presents. eat ... drink - A picture of a time of quiet and prosperity, a time when each man might enjoy the fruits of his land, without any fear of the spoiler’s violence. The words are in contrast with the latter part of 2Ki 18:27. Cistern - Rather, “well” Deu 6:

   “We must never dishonour God, in honour to our earthly parents. Brazen serpent - Which had been hitherto kept as a memorial of God's mercy; but being now commonly abused to superstition, was destroyed. To it - Not doubtless as to a God, but only as to an instrument of God's mercy, by and through which, their adoration was directed to God, and given to that only for God's sake.

   Everything gathered on 2 Kings 18:31→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Proverbs 5:15

   Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 5:152 voices

   By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters."

   “Drink waters out of thine own cistern,.... Arguments being used to dissuade from conversation with an adulterous woman, taken from the disgrace, diseases, poverty, and distress of mind on reflection, it brings a man to; the wise man proceeds to direct to marriage, as a proper antidote against it: take a wife and cleave to her, and enjoy all the pleasures and comforts of a marriage state.

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 5:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Ecclesiastes 12:6

   Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped and the golden bowl is crushed, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well,

   ›Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12:62 voices

   “(2) A fountain, from which water is drawn by a pitcher let down by a rope wound round a wheel; as, when the pitcher and wheel are broken, water can no more be drawn, so life ceases when the vital energies are gone. The "fountain" may mean the right ventricle of the heart; the "cistern," the left; the pitcher, the veins; the wheel, the aorta, or great artery [SMITH].

   “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

   Everything gathered on Ecclesiastes 12:6→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Isaiah 36:16

   Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,

   ›Commentary on Isaiah 36:162 voices

   “(Vers. 16 seqq.) Join me in blessing, and come out to me, and each one eat his own vineyard, and each one eat his own fig tree, and each one drink the water of his own cistern. This is what is read in the Book of Kings: 'Do with me what is beneficial, and come out to me' (2 Kings 18:31). Therefore, the meaning is the same. 'Do what is profitable for you,' he says, 'and may it contribute to your blessing.'

   “The history related here, and in the three following chapters, is, almost in the same words contained 2 Kings 18, 19, 20. It is inserted here, to explain and confirm some of the foregoing predictions.

   Everything gathered on Isaiah 36:16→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Jeremiah 2:13

   “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns— broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

   ›Commentary on Jeremiah 2:132 voices

   “Of living waters - A metaphor taken from springs, called living, because they never cease, or intermit; such had God's care and kindness been over them. Cisterns - Either their idols, which are empty vain things, that never answer expectation, or the Assyrians, and Egyptians. Indeed all other supports, that are trusted to besides God, are but broken vessels.

   “The pagan are guilty of but one sin - idolatry; the covenant-people commit two - they abandon the true God; they serve idols. Fountain - Not a spring or natural fountain, but a tank or reservoir dug in the ground (see Jer 6:7), and chiefly intended for storing living waters, i. e., those of springs and rivulets. The cistern was used for storing up rain-water only, and therefore the quantity it contained was limited.

   Everything gathered on Jeremiah 2:13→

   Verse page →Original language →