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can also be used to mean “lodge” and thus refers to sleeping and eating.
Israel’s spies lodged with Rahab: “And they went, and came into a harlot’s house, named
Rahab, and lodged there” (Josh. 2:1; cf. 2 Kings 4:11).
This verb can mean “to lie down” in a figurative sense of to be humbled or to be
robbed of power. The trees of Lebanon are personified and say concerning the king of
Babylon: “Since thou art laid down, no feller [tree cutter] is come up against us” (Isa.
14:8).
Used reflexively,
means “to humble oneself, to submit oneself”: “We lie
down in our shame …” (Jer. 3:25).
Another special nuance is “to put something on its side”: “Who can number the
clouds in wisdom? Or who can [tip] the bottles of heaven, when the dust groweth into
hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?” (Job 38:37-38).
A second emphasis of
is “to die,” to lie down in death. Jacob instructed his
sons as follows: “But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and
bury me in their burying place” (Gen. 47:30). This phrase (“lie down with one’s fathers”)
does not necessarily refer to being buried or to dying an honorable death (cf. 1 Kings
22:40) but is a synonym for a human’s dying. (It is never used of animals or inanimate
things.) The idea is that when one dies he no longer stands upright. Therefore, to “lie with
one’s fathers” parallels the concept of “lying down” in death.
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, as 1 Kings 22:40
suggests, can refer to the state of being dead (“so Ahab slept with his fathers”), since v.
37 already reports that he had died and was buried in Samaria. The verb used by itself
may mean “to die,” or “to lie dead”; cf. “At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay [dead]: at
her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead” (Judg. 5:27).
A third major use of
is “to have sexual relations with.” The first occurrence of
this use is in Gen. 19:32, where Lot’s daughters say: “Come, let us make our father drink
wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.” Even when a
physical “lying down” is not necessarily in view, the word is used of having sexual
relations: “Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death” (Exod. 22:19). The
word is also used of homosexual activities (Lev. 18:22).
B. Nouns.
(
, 4904), “place to lie; couch; bed; act of lying.” This noun appears
46 times in the Old Testament. In Gen. 49:4
is used to mean a “place to lie” or
“bed”: “… because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed.…” The word refers to the “act of
lying” in Num. 31:17: “… kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.”
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means “layer of dew.” In one of its 9 appearances,
refers to a
“layer of dew”: “… and in the morning the dew lay round about the host” (Exod. 16:13).
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refers to “copulation.” This noun occurs rarely (4 times), as in Lev. 18:20:
“Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor’s wife, to defile thyself with her.”
TO LIGHT
A. Verb.