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Prison, Prisoner
PRISON, PRISONER. A place of confinement or restraint, often as a means of punishment. A person so confined.
A. Descriptive words. A variety of terms are used in the OT and several in the NT to describe incarceration. These are variously tr. in the major VSS. The following list includes most of the occurrences of significance:
1. אֲזִקִּים, H272, זִקִּ֑ים, “chains,” “fetters” (
5. חָנוּת, H2844, “vaulted room” cell (
6. כֶּ֫בֶל, H3890, “fetter” (
8. מַהְפֶּ֫כֶת, H4551, “stocks” (
11. פְּקֻדָּה, H7213, “guardhouse,” “prison” (
12. עֹ֫צֶר, H6808, “restraint,” “coercion,” understood in KJV as “prison” (
14. סוּגַר, H6050, “prison,” “cage” (KJV “ward”) (
15. שָׁבָה, H8647, “take captive,” and its derivatives may imply, but not explicitly indicate imprisonment (e.g.,
17. ἅλυσις, G268, “chain,” “bond,” “handcuff” (
19. οἴκημα, G3862, “cell,” used euphemistically for “prison” (
20. σειρά, G4937, “cord,” “rope” (
B. Nature of imprisonment. The foregoing citations indicate the different kinds of imprisonment known in Biblical times. These included incarceration in a pit, perhaps a cistern, in a military or royal building, in cells and dungeons, and occasionally in a house. Devices sometimes were used to make the prisoner uncomfortable, such as fetters or stocks. Floggings also were administered, esp. during NT times. It must be recognized, however, that imprisonment itself was not necessarily a legal means of punishment. Rather it was often a detention prior to trial, the isolation of a dangerous person, or a restraint imposed with no judicial sanction. It is observed that
C. Notable examples of imprisonment. 1. Joseph was taken by his brothers, cast temporarily into a pit, sold to traders (
2. Detention pending judicial decision (
3. Samson was imprisoned and put to hard labor (
4. Micaiah, a prophet, King Hoshea of the northern kingdom (Israel), and King Jehoiakin of Judah were put in security as political prisoners (
5. Jeremiah suffered various forms of imprisonment: in stocks, in the king’s private prison, in another private prison—evidently with cells and dungeon, and in another dungeon, possibly a cistern. (See references to the Book of Jeremiah in A. 1 through 9 above.)
7. Prisons provided illustrative material for Jesus (
8. John the Baptist was imprisoned (
9. Jesus’ predictions that His disciples would be imprisoned (
10. Paul imprisoned others before his conversion (
11. The abode of the departed evil is called a prison in the difficult passage (
12. The abyss in which Satan is confined during the millennium is also called a prison (