Dungeon

The dungeon in the UPDV is a specific kind of prison: a pit or cistern within a larger guarded enclosure, used to hold a captive in conditions designed to immobilize and silence him. Two passages carry the term — the imprisonment of Jeremiah, and a poetic complaint in Lamentations.

Jeremiah Lowered into the Cistern

The most concrete dungeon scene in the UPDV is Jeremiah's: "Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire" (Jer 38:6). The dungeon is identified by ownership (Malchijah the king's son), located within the court of the guard, entered only by being lowered on cords, and described by its contents — no water, only mire. The cistern is dry but treacherous, and the prophet sinks in it.

The Stone-Sealed Pit in Lamentations

The other UPDV occurrence is poetic. The speaker of Lamentations 3 describes a near-death imprisonment: "They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me" (Lam 3:53). The picture pairs the dungeon with a stone laid over the opening, which fixes the captive in the pit and seals him from above. The vocabulary matches the cistern-style holding pit of the Jeremiah scene.