Bed
(Heb. mittah), for rest at night (Ex 8:3; 1 Sam 19:13, 1 Sam 19:15, 1 Sam 19:16, etc.); during sickness (Gen 47:31; Gen 48:2; Gen 49:33, etc.); as a sofa for rest (1 Sam 28:23; Amos 3:12). Another Hebrew word (er’es) so rendered denotes a canopied bed, or a bed with curtains (Deut 3:11; Ps 132:3), for sickness (Ps 6:6; Ps 41:3).
In the New Testament it denotes sometimes a litter with a coverlet (Matt 9:2, Matt 9:6; Luke 5:18; Acts 5:15).
The Jewish bedstead was frequently merely the divan or platform along the sides of the house, sometimes a very slight portable frame, sometimes only a mat or one or more quilts. The only material for bed-clothes is mentioned in 1 Sam 19:13. Sleeping in the open air was not uncommon, the sleeper wrapping himself in his outer garment (Ex 22:26, Ex 22:27; Deut 24:12, Deut 24:13).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
