CISTERN (בּﯴר, H1014; LXX λάκκος). These covered receptacles for the storage of water were used in the Near E from earliest times. They were cut into impervious clay or rock, and filled with rain water through drains, or by other methods. In form, the cistern was frequently “pear-shaped,” which made a small opening and cover possible, though a great variety of other shapes was used. The bottle shape in large sized cisterns also made them useful for dungeons (Jer 38:6-13; cf. Gen 37:22, 28; Zech 9:11). While the art of making self-hardening plaster was mastered in the 4th millennium b.c., the making of cisterns with plastered linings seems not to have been fully developed before the 13th cent. b.c., and this use of hydraulic cement enabled much wider settlement than was previously possible.

Existing cisterns were to be taken over by the Hebrews in the Conquest (Deut 6:11). They came to be regarded as a measure of security, enabling cities to withstand military siege, and a symbol of peaceful family life (2 Kings 18:31; Isa 36:16). The progressive government of Uzziah constructed many cisterns as public works (2 Chron 26:10). Those cisterns no longer useful for water storage might be adapted for the storage of grain, or for tombs, and sometimes figured in accounts of personal experience and of crime (e.g., 2 Sam 17:17-20; Jer 41:4-9). Occasional skeletal remains are recovered by excavators (cf. Macalister, at Tell Gezer; Badè, at Tell en-Nasbeh; and Callaway at ’Ai). Broken cisterns were used to describe the deities upon whom backslidden Israel was placing reliance (Jer 2:13).

Examples of complex cistern construction from Biblical times occur at Jerusalem, Samaria, Mareshah, Masada, and other sites. The cistern or well was a domestic gathering place and center of life in the Near E, and sometimes the object of strife. Many of those from ancient times are still in daily use.

Bibliography C. Cobern, The New Archaeological Discoveries (1917), 357; R. Macalister, A Century of Excavation in Palestine (1925), 220, 221; W. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine (1930), 113, 210; C. McCown, The Ladder of Progress in Palestine (1943), 87; M. & J. Miller, Encyclopedia of Bible Life (1944), 423; N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (1959), 94-97; Josephus, Wars, III, vii, 12, 13, and IV, i, 8; F. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran (1961), 67, 68; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (1961), 238-240; R. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology, Vol. I (1964), 152; Y. Yadin, Masada (1966), 26-29.