מִטָּה
bed
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4296 appears in the Book of Song of Solomon — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Song of Solomon
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
מטה — transliterated miṭṭâh — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “bed.” It first appears in Genesis 47:31. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 29 verses — moderately common. Related forms include נטה, מטה and מטה. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4296 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 29
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 29 distinct verses.
- 13 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,160
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,160 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 29 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 29 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 18 verses · 62%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 24%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 14%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Bed 19×, Beds 2×
- American Standard Version: Bed 18×, Couch 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Bed 19×, Couch 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Bed 20×, Beds 2×, Couch 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4296 across 27 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4296 across 29 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4296 across 27 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4296 across 29 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- couch, bed, bier
Word origin
n.f. couch, bed (place of reclining; מטותם Ecclus 48:6);—abs. מִטָּה Am 3:12 + 14 times; cstr. מִטַּת 2 K 4:21; sf. מִטָּתִי ψ 6:7, מִטָּתֶ֑ךָ Ex 7:28, מִטָּתוֹ 2 S 4:7 + 6 times; pl. מִטּוֹת abs. 2 K 11:2; 2 Ch 22:11, cstr. Am 6:4 Est 1:6;—couch, bed, common article of furniture 2 K 4:10, cf. v 21, 32 1 K 17:19, for repose, especially at night, or in illness Gn 47:31 (J; רֹאשׁ הַמּ׳), cf. 48:2 (J), 49:33 (P), ψ 6:7 Pr 26:14; 2 Ch 24:25 (prob.), and for sitting, or reclining by day 1 S 28:23; 1 K 21:4; פְּאַת מ׳ Am 3:12; seat of King Solomon Ct 3:7; in bed-chamber (חֲדַר מִשְׁכָּב) Ex 7:28 (J), 2 S 4:7; sometimes portable 1 S 19:15 cf. v 13, 16, hence = bier 2 S 3:31; sometimes high 2 K 1:4, 6, 16 (עָלָה שָׁם, opp. יָרַד מִן); sometimes costly, (with frames) of ivory Am 6:4; for reclining at feasts, made of gold and silver Est 1:6; cf. מ׳ כְּבוּדָּה Ez 23:41 glorious couch; חֲדַר הַמִּטּוֹת 2 K 11:2 = 2 Ch 22:11 (v. חֶדֶר).—Cf. also מִשְׁכָּב (שׁכב), עֶרֶשׂ.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נטה (nâṭâh) (H5186) — to stretch out.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
מְטָה
- , v. מְטֵי
מִטָּה
- couch, bed, frame, bier. Ned. VII, 5, v. דַּרְגֵּשׁ. Ib. 56ᵃ, a. fr. הכופה את מִטָּתוֹ, v. כָּפָה. Ib. 56ᵇ מ׳ המיוחדת לכלים a bed designated for the exhibit of garments (not slept upon); Snh. 20ᵃ. Ber. III, 1 נושאי המ׳ those carrying the bier; a. fr.—מ׳של גילה, מ׳ גלילתא, v. גִּלָּה, גְּלִילְתָּא.—Sabb. 47ᵃ, v. טרְסִי I.—Pl. מִטּוֹת, מִי׳. Ned. 56ᵃ; a. fr.—Trnsf. family, offspring. Lev. R. s. 36 שהיתה מִטָּתוֹ שלימה his bed was perfect, his children were all righteous; Sifra B’ḥuck., Par. 2, ch. VIII. Ber. 60ᵇ. Pes. 56ᵃ שמא … יש במִיטָּתִי פסול perhaps there is a blemish in my family; a. e.
מַטֶּה
- 1. staff. Ab. V, 6 המ׳ the staff of Moses. Ex. R. s. 3 המ׳ שתייסרנו בו the staff with which thou shalt chastise him. Ib. ‘the signs which I placed in thy hands’ (Ex. IV, 21) זה המ׳ that means the staff; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 4:21
- 2. tribe. Tosef. R. Hash. III (II), 3 שלש על כל מ׳ ומ׳ three notes for each tribe; Y. Succ. V, 55ᶜ
מֹטָה
- , v. מוֹטָה
מַטָּה
- adv. (b. h.; downward, (used as a noun) below. Tanḥ. B’shall. 23 מחמת אש של מעלה … של מ׳ through the fire from above were his wheels below ignited; (Yalk. Ex. 235 שלמעלן … שלמַטָּן, v. infra). Ḥag. II, 1 (11ᵇ) מה למעלה ומה למ׳ what is above (in heaven) and what is below (in the nether world, Rashi: above the Ḥayoth, below the Ḥayoth, v. חַיָּה). Tosef. Ber. V, 5 שלישי לו למ׳ הימנו he who is the third in rank reclines below him (v. Sm. Ant. s. v. Triclinium); a. fr.—Euphem. for מעלה in order to avoid a blasphemous expression: B. Kam. 79ᵇ כביכול עשה עין של מ׳ … ואוזן של מ׳ וכ׳ he treated, if one may say so, the divine eye as if did not see, and the divine ear as if did not hear.—Frequ. מַטָּן. Y. Yoma VII, 44ᵇ כשירות של מעלן … של מ׳ as the service in heaven, so is that on earth; Lev. R. s. 21, end (not שורות). Y. R. Hash. II, 58ᵇ ב"ד שלמ׳ the court on earth; a. fr.
מְטֵי
- (= h. מָצָא)
- 1. to stretch, reach; to arrive at; to obtain; to happen to. Targ. Gen. XI, 4 (Y. II מַמְטֵי). Targ. O. ib. X, 19 (h. text באכה). Targ. II Kings XIX, 26. Targ. Koh. VIII, 14; a. fr.—Targ. Esth. V, 2 [read:] ומְטָת לִידָהּ and it (the scepter) reached her hand (v. Meg. 15ᵇ).—Snh. 109ᵃ כי מ׳ להאי וכ׳ when he arrived at a certain inn. Keth. 63ᵃ כי מַטְיָא לגביה when she came near him. Ib. מ׳ מעלי וכ׳ the eve of the Day of Atonement came. R. Hash. 12ᵇ א"ר אסי א"ר יוחנן ומָטוּ בה משמיה וכ׳ said R. A. in the name of R. Joh., and they arrived in the chain of tradition up to ‘in the name of R. J. the Galilean’ (an editorial gloss). Y. Ber. III, 6ᵃ top, a. fr. מַטְתֵיה אונס an accident (mourning) befell him. Y. Peah VIII, end, 21ᵇ ומטתיה כן and so it happened to him (as he had wished). Ib. ולא מ׳ מיכול וכ׳ and he had no chance to dine with him. Y. Snh. VI, 23ᶜ; Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵈ bot. בעי מַמְטֵי מיא ולא מ׳ wanted to fetch water but could not. Ib. 78ᵃ top כל דמָטֵי וכ׳, v. זוֹגָא. [Ib. כל מטי יעבוד וכ׳, read: כל חד מינן וכ׳ let each of us do &c.] Y. Keth. IV, 28ᵇ top מְטִינְתָּה להאי דאמר וכ׳ thou hast found that which R … said; ib. מְטִינְתָּא.—Ḥag. 5ᵃ כי מ׳ להאי קרא when he came to this verse. Snh. 100ᵃ כי מָטוּ מגלת וכ׳ when (in preparing wrappers for the scrolls) they came to the roll of Esther; a. v. fr.—[Ḥull. 132ᵃ top מָטוּנָךְ we or they (the words of the text) have reached thee, agree with thee, Rashi; v. טוּנָא I.]
- 2. (sub. בישולא or זימנא) to be ripe, ready. Ḥag. l. c. שביק הנך דמָטוּ וֹכ׳ he left those (figs) which were ripe and plucked those which were not. Ḥull. 112ᵃ תיתאה מטא the lower portion was ready (roasted).
- to cause to reach; to fetch, bring, offer. [Targ. Y. II, Gen. XI, 4 מַמְטֵי part. pass., v. supra.] Targ. Y. ib. XXVII, 25. Targ. O. Lev. IX, 12; a. fr.—B. Kam. 117ᵃ דרי ואַמְטֵי בהדן take it up and hand it over (to the King’s treasury) in our presence; דרא וא׳ וכ׳ he did take it up &c. Ib. 119ᵇ, a. e. אַמְטוּיֵי ואתויי חד (not אמטוי) is leading the needle forth and bringing it home one stitch (= h. הוליך והביא)? B. Bath. 21ᵃ לא מַמְטִינָן וכ׳, v. יָנוּקָא I. Keth. 103ᵇ sq. אַמְטְיוּהִי לצ׳ וכ׳ they took him to Sepphoris which lies high. Gen. R. s. 14, beg.; ib. 20 מן דידכון אנא מַמְטֵי לכון from your own language I will offer (proof) to you; a. fr.
- to repair to. Targ. O. Num. XXIII, 15; a. fr.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 18 distinct written forms H4296 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4296, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 29 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 29 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 47:31
- Exodus 8:3
- 1 Samuel 19:13
- 2 Samuel 3:31
- 1 Kings 17:19
- 2 Kings 1:4
- 2 Chronicles 22:11
- Esther 1:6
- Psalms 6:6
- Proverbs 26:14
- Song of Solomon 3:7
- Ezekiel 23:41
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
