A bed (figuratively, a bier ); abstractly, sleep ; by euphemism, carnal intercourse
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Mishkav is a Hebrew noun for a bed, couch, place of lying, or the act associated with lying down. Contexts include ordinary rest, night reflection, sickness, death, sexual intimacy, sexual betrayal, ritual impurity, and danger.
Reader summary
Full entry for מִשְׁכָּב (H4904) · Open the biblical lexicon
Mishkav is a Hebrew noun for a bed, couch, place of lying, or the act associated with lying down. Contexts include ordinary rest, night reflection, sickness, death, sexual intimacy, sexual betrayal, ritual impurity, and danger.
The BSB source-word alignment has 46 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (10), his bed (5), bed (4), their beds (4), your bed (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 49:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (9), 2 Samuel (7), Isaiah (4), Psalms (4).
Mishkav is a Hebrew noun for a bed, couch, place of lying, or the act associated with lying down. Contexts include ordinary rest, night reflection, sickness, death, sexual intimacy, sexual betrayal, ritual impurity, and danger. A bed may be a quiet place where a person searches the heart before God, a sickbed on which the Lord sustains, or a domestic space violated by sin.
Genesis 49 recalls Reuben's defiling act through the language of his father's bed. Proverbs 7 places a perfumed bed inside a warning about destructive seduction, not a condemnation of beds, fragrance, or marital intimacy. Because the word enters private and traumatic settings, teachers must identify agency, consent, covenant, power, and genre rather than treating every occurrence alike.
Scripture's sexual and purity contexts must not be used to shame bodies, blame victims, expose private histories, or force public disclosure. Pastoral use should protect safety, honor lawful intimacy, make room for illness and grief, and acknowledge that rest can be difficult for people living with pain or trauma.
Mishkav names a place or act of lying across rest, sickness, sexual conduct, and poetic reflection; surrounding relationships and actions determine whether the scene is peaceful, vulnerable, or violated.
Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still. Selah
The psalm turns the bed into a private setting for restraint, honest self-examination, and stillness rather than impulsive retaliation.
The Lord will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness.
The sickbed marks bodily vulnerability and dependence, while the psalm confesses the Lord's sustaining care without supplying a medical timetable.
Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
Jacob names Reuben's sexual betrayal through the violated bed, connecting uncontrolled action with grave family and covenant consequences.
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.
The furnished bed belongs to a larger warning scene in which enticing speech leads a young man toward adultery and ruin.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. a bed (figuratively, a bier ); abstractly, sleep ; by euphemism, carnal intercourse
a bed (figuratively, a bier); abstractly, sleep; by euphemism, carnal intercourse BDB: place of lying Usage: bed(-chamber), couch, lieth (lying) with.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
מִשְׁכָּב is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
A bed gathers some of life's most private experiences: sleep, prayerful reflection, sickness, desire, covenant intimacy, betrayal, fear, and dying. Psalm 4 places moral restraint and heart-searching there. Psalm 41 confesses God's sustaining presence beside illness. Genesis 49 remembers a family boundary grievously violated, and Proverbs 7 portrays a prepared bed within persuasive movement toward adultery and ruin.
The word itself does not declare a bed pure or defiled; people, relationships, actions, and covenant context do. Churches should teach sexual faithfulness without treating bodies as shameful, recognize that consent and power matter, and respond to assault or coercion with belief, protection, qualified care, and appropriate reporting where required. They should honor medical treatment and caregiving rather than promising a recovery schedule from one poetic verse.
They should also make room for those whose sleep is disrupted by grief, pain, danger, or trauma. The Lord's presence in private vulnerability calls for gentleness, truth, safety, and trustworthy boundaries.
Ps.41.3
The noun derives from lying down and can denote a physical bed or couch, a place of sleep or sickness, and in some constructions sexual relations. Syntax and narrative context determine the sense.
New Testament teaching honors rest, compassionate care, marital faithfulness, bodily dignity, and sexual holiness while condemning exploitation. These themes guide pastoral application, but no single Greek bed term reproduces the full contextual range of H4904.