Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 119:85

Pits. Hajji said he would tell me a tale or two about crocodiles, and he would begin by telling me how they catch them sometimes. A deep pit, he said, is dug by the side of the river, and then covered with doura straw. The crocodiles fall into these pits, and cannot get out again... There can be no doubt that formerly pits were dug for the crocodiles, as Hajji described, as is the case still in some parts of the world or other animals. To this custom allusion is made in Psalms 7:15 Psalms 7:9:15 Psalms 7:10:2 Psalms 7:35:8 Psalms 7:141:10 Proverbs 26:27 Ecclesiastes 10:8: etc. "He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made." Probably also this was the kind of pit referred to in Exodus 21:33: "If a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it"; i.e., not cover it effectually; "and an ass or an ox fall therein, "etc.

Prisoners were sometimes shut up in pits, and left without water, literally to die of thirst. What a dreadful death! It is said that nothing can be more terrible. How dreadful must be their groans! John Gadsby.