Greek word · G2825

κλίνη

klinē

bed

Bed, couch, sleeping mat, a stretcher for the sick (Luke 5:18), or a dining couch.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

κλίνη, -ης, ἡ

(κλίνω), [in LXX chiefly for מִטָּה ;]

a bed, couch: Matthew 9:2, 6, Mark 4:21 7:4, 30, Luke 5:18 8:16 17:34, Revelation 2:22 (cf. MM, Exp., xv).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Bed, couch, sleeping mat, a stretcher for the sick (Luke 5:18), or a dining couch.
Against the English: "Bed" suggests a private bedroom. In a Galilean village house the whole family usually slept together on mats on a raised part of a single room.
Used elsewhere in the period: Luke 11:7: "my children are with me in bed" (koitē). Luke 5:18–19: a klinē used as a stretcher. Mark 4:21: a lamp is not put "under a bed."

Range of meaning: A bed or couch: a raised frame for sleeping, a couch for reclining at a formal meal, or a stretcher for carrying the sick.
Against the English: 'Bed' is accurate. A modern reader may not know that the space underneath was the obvious dark, out-of-the-way spot in a room.
Used elsewhere in the period: In Luke, the paralysed man is carried on a κλίνη (5:18), and 17:34 has 'two in one bed.' In Greek and Roman houses the κλίνη was the dining couch. Poorer homes in Galilee often had only sleeping mats, so a raised couch suggests a better-furnished house. That fits Luke's Greek-speaking readers.

Range of meaning: Any piece of furniture you lie or recline on: a bed for sleeping; the couch diners lay on at a formal meal (Greco-Roman banquets were eaten lying down); a sickbed; sometimes a bier for carrying the dead.
Against the English: The KJV and YLT keep the bare word ('a bed,' 'a couch'). The BSB, ESV and NASB add 'sickness' to make the sense clear, and the NIV and NLT say 'suffering.' The plain 'bed' keeps the irony but leaves modern readers guessing. The expanded versions make the meaning clear but lose the double sense.
How it drifted: In modern English 'bed' sounds mainly like the bedroom, and in a verse about adultery it suggests a sexual bed. The punishment then reads as cryptic. Ancient readers knew 'thrown onto a bed' as a common way of saying someone fell ill.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Gospels use βάλλω with a bed for sickness: a paralytic 'lying (literally thrown) on a bed' (Matt 9:2); Peter's mother-in-law 'thrown down and feverish' (Matt 8:14); the healed girl 'lying on the bed' (Mark 7:30). In Judith 8:3 (LXX), Manasseh 'fell on his bed' and died of sunstroke. In Greek usage generally (see BDAG), κλίνη is also the standard word for a banquet couch.

Matthew · 2

Matthew 9:2 κλίνης a bed

Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Here: A bed or couch, here a portable one serving as a stretcher. Mark's version uses a word for a poor man's pallet; Matthew's word is more general. BSB 'mat', KJV 'bed', YLT 'couch'.
Matthew 9:6 κλίνην mat

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

Here: A portable couch or pallet, the same object as in v.2. Matthew uses this word where Mark has the humbler word for a mat (krabattos).

Mark · 3

Mark 4:21 κλίνην; bed?

Jesus also said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand?

Here: A raised piece of furniture on legs, used for sleeping or for reclining at meals. A burning lamp put under it would give no light and could start a fire. The picture is deliberately ridiculous.
Mark 7:4 κλινῶν.¶ couches for dining.

And on returning from the market, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions for them to observe, including the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and couches for dining.
Mark 7:30 κλίνην bed

And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

Luke · 3

Luke 5:18 κλίνης a mat

Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to bring him inside to set him before Jesus,
Luke 8:16 κλίνης a bed

No one lights a lamp and covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light.

Here: A raised bed or couch, the kind people slept on or reclined on at meals. A lamp under it would light nothing but the floor, and it could set the couch on fire. The picture is deliberately ridiculous.
Luke 17:34 κλίνης bed

I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left.

Here: A bed, sleeping mat or couch. In a one-room village house it is the shared sleeping place of a household (compare Luke 11:7, "my children are with me in bed").

Revelation · 1

Revelation 2:22 κλίνην a sickbed

Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

Here: A couch for sleeping, for reclining at a meal, or for lying sick. In context it means a sickbed, with irony: the bed of her 'adultery' turns into a bed of illness.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.