Bedchamber
Bedchamber
(חֲדִר הִמִּטּוֹת, room of the beds, 2Ki 11:2; 2Ch 22:11; elsewhere חֲדִר מִשֵׁכָּב, sleeping-room, Ex 8:3; 2Sa 4:7; 2Ki 6:12; Ec 10:20). Bedrooms in the East consist of an apartment furnished with a divan, or dais, which is a slightly elevated platform at the upper end, and often along the sides of the room. On this are laid the mattresses on which the Western Asiatics sit cross-legged in the daytime, with large cushions against the wall to support the back. At night the light bedding is usually laid out upon this divan, and thus beds for many persons are easily formed. The bedding is removed in the morning, and deposited in recesses in the room made for the purpose. This is a sort of general sleeping-room for the males of the family and for guests, none but the master having access to the inner parts of the house, where alone there are proper and distinct bedchambers. In these the bedding is either laid on the carpeted floor, or placed on a low frame or bedstead. This difference between the public and private sleeping-room, which the arrangement of an Eastern household renders necessary, seems to explain the difficulties which have perplexed readers of travels, who, finding mention only of the more public dormitory, the divan, have been led to conclude that there was no other or different one. SEE DIVAN.
Josephus (Ant. 12, 4, 11) mentions the bedchambers in the Arabian palace of Hyrcanus. The ordinary furniture of a bedchamber in private life is given in 2Ki 4:10. The "bedchamber" in the Temple where Joash was hidden was probably a store-chamber for keeping beds, not a mere bedroom, and thus better adapted to conceal the fugitives (2Ki 11:2; 2Ch 22:11). The position of the bedchamber in the most remote and secret parts of the palace seems marked in Ex 8:3; 2Ki 6:12. SEE BED.
