BED יָצוּעַ֒, H3661, thing spread out; עֶ֫רֶשׂ, H6911, couch, thing spread out; מִטָּה, H4753; κλίνη, G3109, place of reclining; מַצָּע, H5201, anything spread out; H5435, מִשְׁכָּב place for lying down; κοίτη, G3130, a laying, bed; κράββατος, G3188, bed as bedstead; חֲדַ֣ר מִשְׁכָּב or חֲדַר מִטָּה bedchamber. Anything used in sleeping, resting or in sickness, most often of a movable character.

Forms. The simplest and most common form of bed was a mat of some sort, of cloth or other woven fabric, in the poorer homes laid out at night in a portion of the principal room where the whole family slept (Luke 11:7, koítē). It was customary for most to sleep in their ordinary garments (Exod 22:27) with only a coverlet over them if they had more than a cloak. This was often the only cover the poorer class had. The bed was thus easily transported (Prov 22:27) but it was forbidden to keep the cloak overnight as security for debt (Exod 22:27). Sleeping places, as today, were often ranged along the wall (cf. 2 Kings 20:2; Hezekiah in his sickness). Other places were in the second story of houses with such (cf. 2 Kings 1:4; Ps 132:3), and others had single rooms known as upper chambers (1 Kings 17:19, “loft,” actually “upper chamber”). Elisha was provided an upper chamber (2 Kings 4:10) “on the wall,” i.e., the house was built against the city wall, and was therein provided with a bed, a table, a stool and a lamp. The furniture indicates a better-than-average standard of living in this household. The houses of the well-to-do were provided with bed chambers (2 Kings 11:2; cf. 2 Sam 4:7; Eccl 10:20).

There is indication that the place of the bed was sometimes a raised portion of the floor on which the sleeping mats were laid. In the daytime these would serve as resting places or even where persons would sit and chat. Later forms of the bed are revealed as wood frames to which was attached a webbing of rope or fabric to support the pallet and covering (see Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt; ANEP, 658, 660, 740. Such a type is indicated in 1 Sam 19:15; 2 Kings 4:10, 21; Ezek 23:41). The bed of the lame man (John 5) is this same type, a light wood frame with legs and webbing, easily carried by one from place to place (krabbaton, 5:8, 9). It was easily used as a stretcher (Luke 9:18-25) in the case of the palsied man.

Richness. For the desert dwelling bedouin or the city dweller in the house the method of embellishment for the bed spread on the floor or on the raised platform was the profuse addition of layers of carpets: “I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen” (Prov 7:16). To enhance the wood frames of bedsteads ivory inlay was utilized (cf. Amos 6:4), this in the days of Uzziah (1:1). They were current in the days of Hezekiah for Sennacherib lists them in the tribute he received from Hezekiah (ANET, 288). In the days of Esther they were ornamented with gold and silver, both plating and inlay (Esth 1:6). Ptolemy of Egypt is reported by Josephus (Antiq. XII. xii. 15) to have sent to the high priest Eliezer in Jerusalem ten bedsteads having silver feet. In Judith the bed of Holophernes is referred to as having a canopy woven of purple and gold threads and having precious stones worked upon it (10:21). The bed of Solomon (Song of Solomon 3:10) was made of the cedar of Lebanon with silver corner posts and with a gold frame.

Adjuncts to the bed included the pillow (cf. 1 Sam 19:12), cushions, some made of silk (Amos 3:12), and covers fashioned of costly materials having embroidered work; and Jacob’s bed had a headpiece (Gen 47:31).

The bedstead of iron of Og, king of Bashan (Deut 3:1) is remarkable because of size and may actually have been a sarcophagus.

Uses. The bed is a place of meditation about God (Ps 63:6) and is to be forsaken when the business of the Lord presses on one (132:3). It doubles as a litter or stretcher (1 Sam 19:15; Mark 2:4). It served also as the place of the revelation of the will of God to Daniel (2:28, etc.) and to Samuel (1 Sam 3:3, 4). It is also the place where the wicked howl out their vexation against God (Hos 7:14), rather than pleading for God’s grace and mercy. It is seen as the place where the wicked plot against the righteous and against God (Ps 36:4). The people of God are said to have departed from Him when they seek the beds of others in forbidden alliances with foreign powers (Isa 57:7, 8). To be cast into a bed in the midst of the slain is to share their fate (Ezek 32:25). To make one’s bed in Sheol (Job 17:13, 14) is to describe one’s death, and the short bed of Isaiah 28:20 is an intolerable situation. But in the bed of sickness God is found to be the comforter of the sick (Ps 41:3).