Bible Dictionary
Bed-chamber
A bed-chamber was a private or semi-private sleeping room in an eastern house. The term may also refer to a storeroom where bedding was kept.
Definition
A bed-chamber was a private or semi-private sleeping room in an eastern house. It could contain a raised platform or platforms along the sides on which mattresses were laid. In one passage the term refers to a storeroom for mattresses.
Biblical Usage
Bed-chambers occur in biblical descriptions of domestic sleeping arrangements and in accounts involving private rooms and household stores.
Historical Background
The general sleeping room could accommodate the household males and guests, while more private bed-chambers were also provided. Platforms and mattresses formed the basic arrangement.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
An apartment in Eastern houses, furnished with a slightly elevated platform at the upper end and sometimes along the sides, on which were laid mattresses. This was the general arrangement of the public sleeping-room for the males of the family and for guests, but there were usually besides distinct bed-chambers of a more private character (2 Kings 4:10; Ex. 8:3; 2 Kings 6:12). In 2 Kings 11:2 this word denotes, as in the margin of the Revised Version, a store-room in which mattresses were kept.