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Different from the ordinary prison in being more severe as a place of punishment. Like the Roman inner prison (Acts 16:24), it consisted of a deep cell or cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). To be shut up in, a punishment common in Egypt (Genesis 39:20; 40:3; 41:10; 42:19). It is not mentioned, however, in the law of Moses as a mode of punishment. Under the later kings imprisonment was frequently used as a punishment (2 Chronicles 16:10; Jeremiah 20:2; 32:2; 33:1; 37:15), and it was customary after the Exile (Matthew 11:2; Luke 3:20; Acts 5:18, 21; Matthew 18:30).
