Part of Speech: Verb
Strong's Number: H7901
Original Word: shakab
Usage Notes: "to lie down, lie, have sexual intercourse with." This word also occurs in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, post-biblical Aramaic, and post-biblical Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 160 times and in all periods.
Basically this verb signifies a person's lying down, though in Job 30:17 and Eccl 2:23 it refers to something other than a human being. Shakab is used of the state of reclining as opposed to sitting: "And every thing that she lieth upon in her [menstruation] shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon…" (Lev 15:20). This general sense appears in several nuances. First, there is the meaning "to lie down to rest." Elisha "came thither, and he turned into the chamber [which the Shunammite had prepared for his use], and lay there" (2Kings 4:11). Job remarks that his gnawing pains "take no rest" (Job 30:17; cf. Eccl 2:23).
Shakab can also be used of lying down on a bed, for example, when one is sick. Jonadab told Amnon: "Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself [pretend to be] sick…" (2Sam 13:5). The word can be used as an equivalent of the phrase "to go to bed": "But before they [Lot's visitors] lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round…" (Gen 19:4, the first occurrence of the verb). Shakab also signifies "lying down asleep." The Lord told Jacob: "…The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed" (Gen 28:13).
In Exod 22:26-27 the verb denotes the act of sleeping more than the lying down: "If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down…[In what else] shall he sleep" Shakab 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. 2Kings 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, shakab 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 1:38-38).
A second emphasis of shakab 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. 1Kings 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. Shakab, 110 1Kings 22:40 suggests, can refer to the state of being dead ("so Ahab slept with his fathers"), since v. 1Kings 22:37 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 shakab 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).
Usage Number: 2
Part of Speech: Noun
Strong's Number: H4904
Original Word: mishkab
Usage Notes: "place to lie; couch; bed; act of lying." This noun appears 46 times in the Old Testament. In Gen 49:4 mishkab 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."
Usage Number: 3
Original Word: shekabâ
Usage Notes:Shekabâ means "layer of dew." In one of its 9 appearances, shekabâ refers to a "layer of dew": "…and in the morning the dew lay round about the host" (Exod 16:13).
Usage Number: 4
Original Word: shekobet
Usage Notes:Shekobet 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."
