Lodge
Lodge (properly some form of the verb לוּן, lun, or לַין, lin, to stay over night, αὐλίζομαι, etc.). See INN. In Isa 1:8, the "lodge in a garden" (מלוּנָה, meelunah', a lodging-place, rendered "cottage" in Isa 24:20) signifies a shed or lodge for the watchman in a garden; it also refers to a sort of hanging bed or hammock, which travelers in hot climates, or the watchmen of gardens or vineyards, hang on high trees to sleep in at night, probably from the fear of wild beasts (Isa 24:20). The lodge here referred to was a little temporary hut consisting of a low framework of poles, covered with boughs, straw, turf, or similar materials, for a shelter from the heat by day and the cold and dews by night, for the watchmen that kept the garden, or vineyard, during the short season while the fruit was ripening (Job 27:18), and speedily removed when it had served that purpose. It is usually erected on a slight artificial mound of earth, with just space sufficient for one person, who, in this confined solitude, remains constantly watching the ripening crop, as the jackals during the vintage often destroy whole vineyards. and likewise commit great ravages in the gardens of cucumbers and melons. This protection is also necessary to prevent the depredations of thieves. To see one of these miserable sheds standing alone in the midst of a field or on the margin of it, occupied by its solitary watcher, often a decrepit or aged person, presents a striking image of dreariness and loneliness (Hackett's Illustra. of Scripture, page 162). SEE COTTAGE.
