mishkav · bed

What it means

mishkav (מִשְׁכָּב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “bed”.

Place where one lies down.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The place in the house for sleeping and resting.
2. To join someone in the intimacy of a couple.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Bed: the place where one lies down. It comes from the verb שָׁכַב, ‘lie down’ (H7901), and that is why in some phrases it means the very act of lying down, also in a sexual sense.

• The bed of the house 2 Samuel 11:22 Samuel 4:7Exodus 8:3
• The unclean bed in the laws of discharge Leviticus 15:4Leviticus 15:26
• “You went up to your father’s bed” Genesis 49:4
• “On your bed”: what one thinks at night Psalms 4:4Micah 2:1Psalms 149:5
• Lying: “as one lies” Leviticus 18:22Numbers 31:17

Historical and cultural background

Jacob reproaches Reuben, the firstborn, that “you went up to your father’s bed” (Genesis 49:4; see 35:22). The law of Exodus 21:18 provides for the case of one wounded who does not die “but is confined to bed”.

How we translate it

“Bed” 29 times and “beds” 5; “couch” in Job 7:13, where it goes together with עֶרֶשׂ, “bed”. When the word is the act of lying down it is rendered that way: “as one lies with a woman” (Leviticus 18:22) or “by lying with a male” (Numbers 31:17). חֲדַר מִשְׁכָּב is “the room where you sleep” (Exodus 8:3).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• bed ×29
• beds ×5
• lying ×5
• as one lies ×2
• where you sleep ×2
• couch ×1
• rest ×1
• where he slept ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×9
• Numbers×3
• Judges×2
• 2 Samuel×7
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×3
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×4
• Ezekiel×2
• Hosea×1
• Micah×1

• Genesis 49:4

  Turbulent as water, you will not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it; he went up to my couch!

• Exodus 8:3

  The Nile will swarm with frogs, and they will come up and go into your house, into the room where you sleep, and onto your bed, into the houses of your servants and among your people, into your ovens and into your kneading bowls.

• Exodus 21:18

  When men quarrel and a man strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed,

• Leviticus 15:4

  Every bed on which the man with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and every object on which he sits shall be unclean.

• Leviticus 15:5

  And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:21

  And anyone who touches her bed shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:23

  And whether it is on the bed or on the object on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:24

  And if a man does lie with her and her menstruation comes on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

• Leviticus 15:26

  Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like the bed of her menstruation; and every object on which she sits shall be unclean, like the uncleanness of her menstruation.

• Leviticus 18:22

  And you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.

• Leviticus 20:13

  And a man who lies with a male as one lies with a woman, both of them have done an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.

• Numbers 31:17

  Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with a male.

• Numbers 31:18

  But all the little ones among the women who have not known lying with a male, keep alive for yourselves.

• Numbers 31:35

  and human beings, from the women who had not known lying with a male, all the persons were thirty-two thousand.

• Judges 21:11

  And this is the thing that you shall do: every male and every woman who has known lying with a male you shall devote to destruction.”

• Judges 21:12

  And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women, virgins, who had not known a man by lying with a male; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

• 2 Samuel 4:5

  The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came in the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he was lying down for the midday rest.

• 2 Samuel 4:7

  They came into the house while he was lying on his bed in the room where he slept, and they struck him and put him to death and removed his head. They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night.

• 2 Samuel 4:11

  How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed! And now, shall I not require his blood from your hand and remove you from the earth?”

• 2 Samuel 11:2

  And it happened, at the time of evening, that David rose from his bed and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

• 2 Samuel 11:13

  David invited him, and he ate before him and drank, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but to his house he did not go down.

• 2 Samuel 13:5

  Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let Tamar my sister come and give me food to eat, and let her prepare the meal before my eyes, so that I may see it and eat from her hand.’”

• 2 Samuel 17:28

  brought beds, basins, and potter’s vessels, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, and roasted grain,

• 1 Kings 1:47

  Moreover, the king’s servants have come to bless our lord King David, saying, ‘May Elohim make the name of Solomon better than your name, and may he make greater his throne than your throne.’ And the king bowed down on the bed.

• 2 Kings 6:12

  One of his servants said, “No, my lord the king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in the room where you sleep.”

• 2 Chronicles 16:14

  They buried him in his tombs that he had dug for himself in the city of David, and they laid him on the bed that they had filled with spices and perfumes of various kinds blended as a perfumer’s work; and they made for him a very great burning.

• Job 7:13

  When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will help bear my complaint,’

• Job 33:15

  in a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbers on the bed,

• Job 33:19

  He is also rebuked with pain on his bed, and all his bones in constant pain,

• Psalms 4:4

  Tremble and do not sin; speak in your heart on your bed and be silent. Selah.

• Psalms 36:4

  Wickedness he plots on his bed; he takes his stand on a way not good; evil he does not reject.

• Psalms 41:3

  YHWH will support him on the couch of illness; all his bed you have changed in his sickness.

• Psalms 149:5

  Let the faithful exult in glory; let them shout for joy on their beds.

• Proverbs 7:17

  I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

• Proverbs 22:27

  If you have nothing to pay with, why should he take your bed from under you?

• Ecclesiastes 10:20

  Even in your thought do not curse the king, and in the chambers of your bed do not curse the rich, for a bird of the sky will carry the voice, and the owner of wings will tell the matter.

• Song of Songs 3:1

  On my bed through the nights I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him.

• Isaiah 57:2

  He enters into peace; they rest on their beds, he who walks in his uprightness.

• Isaiah 57:7

  On a mountain high and lifted up you have set your bed; also there you went up to sacrifice a sacrifice.

• Isaiah 57:8

  And behind the door and the doorpost you have set your memorial; for away from me you uncovered yourself, and went up, you widened your bed; and you made a covenant for yourself with them; you loved their bed; their hand you gazed on.

And 6 more times.