Metaphysical meaning of Gebim (mbd)
Gebim, ge'-bim (Heb.)--reservoirs, i.e., water gatherers or collectors; cisterns; marshes; pits; ditches; trenches; springs, i.e., issuing out of the ground; locusts. In Isaiah 33:4, "locusts"; in Jeremiah 14:3, "pits"; the A. S. V.. Jeremiah 14:3, gives "cisterns" instead of "pits."
A Benjamite city near Jerusalem, and between Anathoth and Nob. "The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety" from the Assyrians (Isa. 10:31).
Meta. Cisterns, reservoirs, and ditches are artificial places for containing water and for carrying away surplus water. Trenches here are the same as ditches. In Jeremiah 2:13 we read, "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Water here represents life, and the "broken cisterns" are sense man's conception of a material and corruptible body, incapable of entering into immortality, abiding life. Springs suggest the natural springing up of abundant life into man's consciousness.
Gebim signifies the artificial and untrue thoughts about life that are held by the sense man; even his religious thoughts have a very limited concept of true, spiritual life, and what little they do comprehend is easily put to flight by the Assyrians (the false reasonings of sense).
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Preceding Entry: Gebal
Following Entry: Gedaliah
