Digging a Pit

There’s an interesting phrase about mistreating others that is found in both the Old Testament and in modern scripture.  In the Law of Moses the children of Israel were given this commandment: “And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein; The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his” (Exodus 21:33-34).  In other words, a man is responsible for digging a pit that causes harm to someone else.  The sense of this passage seems to be a careless act—the person should have covered the hole and therefore made a mistake, but they didn’t leave it open out of an intent to harm others.  This idea of digging a pit for others seems to have expanded, though, into a general action of intentional harm meant for another, and it was repeated in many passages of scriptures.  For example, Job responded to his friends who chastised him unjustly in this language: “Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend” (Job 6:27). 

                The Psalmist used the passage in numerous places.  Speaking of his enemies he wrote, “They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me” (Psalms 57:6).  The idea is one of intentionally digging a pit so that another would fall into it.  Other passages using the same phrase add another component: “He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made” (Psalms 7:15).  “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken” (Psalms 9:15).  In other words, the pit that the wicked intentionally digs to harm another will ultimately be filled with the digger himself.  In the Book of Mormon, Nephi was likely quoting the Psalmist when he used the phrase.  He quoted the wicked in the last days in this way: “Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die” (2 Nephi 28:8).  He also made this prophecy about the last days, using the phrase on a more aggregate level: “And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the pit which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord” (1 Nephi 22:14).  In a similar passage about the end times he prophesied:  “That great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of men shall be filled by those who digged it” (1 Nephi 14:3).  Joseph Smith essentially prayed for the same thing when he dedicated the Kirtland Temple: “That no weapon formed against them shall prosper; that he who diggeth a pit for them shall fall into the same himself” (D&C 109:25). 

                The phrase I think is especially interesting in how it describes some of the wickedness of the last days.  In the literal interpretation, one would most likely dig the pit surreptitiously, and then wait for the victim to fall in without knowing who dug the unexpected pit.  A pit is also very premeditated and takes a fair amount of work to put together, so it represents a very intentional act.  We see so much of that kind of behavior in our time, from those who very carefully market and sell addictive substances to those who put vicious pornography online to ensnare others.  They go to an enormous amount of effort to build their “pits” into which so many fall.  And in neither case do we really know who the perpetrators are—the diggers of the pits seemingly work in complete secrecy.  But the Lord’s promise is sure: they will fall into their own pits.  Whether that speaks only of a post-mortal justice or an earthly recompense should matter little to us.  What is clear is that the Lord “will recompense them according to their deeds” (Jeremiah 25:14).  And if we think we can get away with digging these kinds of pits to entrap others, unless we find repentance first we will one day be, as Isaiah told us, “brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:15).