In recording a pronouncement of God, the prophet Jeremiah referred to cisterns in a figurative sense, saying: “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. ” ​ — Jeremiah 2: 13, King James Version.
აღთქმულ მიწაზე, ზოგჯერ, მხოლოდ ასეთ ჭებში იყო სიცოცხლისთვის აუცილებელი წყლის მარაგი.