bed
mish.kav denotes a place or furnishing for lying, including sexual, cultic, and funerary settings.
The dominant use denotes the physical place or furnishing on which someone lies, rests, sleeps, or is confined; the same noun also occurs in clauses concerning sexual lying, in cultic imagery, and in funerary scenes.
Senses in use
-
Place or furnishing for lying and resting · dominant
Singular absolute and construct forms identify the place on which people lie, sleep, rest, or remain confined. In Leviticus 15:4 the APB renders every such place as becoming unclean when the man with a discharge lies on it; in 2 Samuel 4:5 and Job 33:15 it is the place where a person is lying, and Proverbs 22:27 presents it as an item that could be taken from under someone.
-
Lying in sexual relations · common
Construct forms occur in clauses that distinguish persons by whether they have lain with another person. Genesis 49:4 speaks of going up to a father's sleeping-place and defiling it, while Leviticus 18:22 and Numbers 31:17 place the noun in statements about lying with a male.
-
Cultic bed imagery · occasional
In Isaiah 57:7 the construct noun is set on a high mountain where sacrifice is offered. Isaiah 57:8 likewise places it in a clause about uncovering oneself, enlarging it, and loving it, giving the sleeping-place imagery a cultic setting.
-
Funerary resting place · rare
In 2 Chronicles 16:14 the singular absolute noun occurs in the account of laying the dead king on a bier. Ezekiel 32:25 similarly places a bed in the midst of the slain, surrounded by graves.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the noun with “bed” in scenes of lying, resting, illness, or uncleanness. Elsewhere its whole-verse renderings use “bier” in 2 Chronicles 16:14 and describe sexual or cultic clauses without consistently isolating an English equivalent.