Beds in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

For the very poor of the East, in ancient times as now, the "bed" was and is, as a rule, the bare ground; and the bedclothes, the gown, simlah, or "outer garment," worn during the day ("For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?" (Ex 22:27); compare Dt 24:13, "Thou shalt surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his garment"). When one was on a journey, or watching his flock by night as a shepherd, such a "bed" was the most natural, and often a stone would serve as a pillow. (See Gen 28:11, where Jacob "took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.") An advance on this custom, which came in due course of time, or under change of circumstances, was the use of a mat on the floor as a bed, with or without covering. At first it was literally laid on the floor, which was generally of one common level, in some convenient place near the wall; but later it was put on an elevation, either a raised part of the floor on one side, or a bedstead, which gave rise to the expression "going up to the bed" (compare Gen 49:33 English Versions of the Bible, "He gathered up his feet into the bed," and Ps 132:3, "go up into my bed"). 1. Old Testament Terms for Bed, and Sleeping Customs of the Hebrews: With a later development and civilization, "beds" came to be built upon supports and constructed in different forms, which fact is reflected in the variety of names given the "bed" in the Hebrew and related languages. (1) The following Hebrew words are used in the Bible for "bed," and, though it is impossible at this remove of time and place and custom to differentiate them sharply, they will repay study: miTTah (Gen 48:2, "And Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed"; Ex 8:3, "frogs .... shall come into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed"); mishkabh, compare (Gen 49:4, Jacob to Reuben: "Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it"); `eres (Prov 7:16, the "strange woman" says: " I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry"; compare Ps 41:3, "Thou makest all his bed in his sickness"); matstsa` (once only, Isa 28:20, "For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it"); and yetsua` (Job 17:13, "I have spread my couch in the darkness"; 1 Ch 5:1, "He defiled his father's couch"; compare Gen 49:4 where the same "father's bed" is mishkabh; Ps 63:6, "when I remember thee upon...