Zechariah 9:11

As for thee also Lit. also thou, i.e. as regards thee (O daughter of Sion), I will also (in addition to all that has been promised, Zechariah 9:9-10) liberate thy captives." So Maurer: "Gaude, Sionia! veniet rex tuus tibi, justus cet.; removebuntur instrumenta belli, alta pax erit; auctum erit imperium tuum mirum in modum; etiam captivos tuos, qui in terris exteris detinentur, tibi restituam memor fœderis facti cum majoribus."

by the blood of thy covenant because of, &c. R. V., i.e. the covenant which I have made with thee. Exodus 24:5-8. Comp. for the higher reference, Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:15.

the pit wherein is no water The "pit," Genesis 40:15, or "house of the pit," Exodus 12:29; Jeremiah 37:16, as denoting the nature of its dungeons, which may in some cases have been actually empty wells (comp. Genesis 37:24), is a common name for a prison in the O. T. The expression, "wherein is no water," is probably added to emphasize the horrors of such a dungeon. "The prisoner in the land of his enemies was left to perish in the pit (Zechariah 9:11). The greatest of all deliverances is that the captive exile is released from the slow death of starvation in it (Isaiah 51:14). The history of Jeremiah, cast into the dungeon or pit (Jeremiah 38:6; Jeremiah 38:9), let down into its depths with cords, sinking into the filth at the bottom (here also there is no water), with death by hunger staring him in the face, shews how terrible an instrument of punishment was such a pit. The condition of the Athenian prisoners in the stone-quarries of Syracuse (Thuc. vii. 87), the Persian punishment of the σπόδος (Ctesias, Pers. 48), the oubliettes of mediæval prisons present instances of cruelty more or less analogous." Bible Dict., Art. "Pit."