Hebrew word · H3331

יָצַע

yutza'

to lay

To spread out a bed or a covering. In the causative form used here it means 'to make a couch, lay out a bed.' In the passive it means 'be spread as a bed.' Related nouns, yāṣûaʿ and maṣṣāʿ, mean 'couch, bed.'

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to spread out, make a bed

1a) (Hiphil) to lay, spread out

1b) (Hophal) to be laid, be spread out

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 139:8

Range of meaning

To spread out a bed or a covering. In the causative form used here it means 'to make a couch, lay out a bed.' In the passive it means 'be spread as a bed.' Related nouns, yāṣûaʿ and maṣṣāʿ, mean 'couch, bed.'

Against the English

BSB, KJV, ESV, NASB and NIV have 'make my bed.' YLT has 'spread out a couch.' The NLT's 'go down to the grave' turns the picture into plain movement and loses the bed. The Septuagint does the same with 'go down.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 14:11 mocks the dead king of Babylon in Sheol: 'maggots are spread [yuṣṣaʿ] as a bed beneath you, worms are your covering.' Esther 4:3: 'sackcloth and ashes were spread as a bed for many' as they mourned. Isaiah 58:5 uses the same verb of lying on sackcloth and ashes. Lying down is also a familiar picture of death: 'lie down in the dust' (Job 20:11; 21:26).

Where it appears

Esther · 1

  1. Esther 4:3 יֻצַּ֖ע it was spread as a bed

    In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 139:8 וְאַצִּ֖יעָה and I will spread as a bed

    If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.

    Here: 'And should I spread out my bed.' The picture is lying down to sleep. The same verb describes the bed of maggots spread under a dead king in the underworld (Isaiah 14:11), so it suggests lying down among the dead.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 14:11 יֻצַּ֣ע it is spread as a bed

    Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.

  2. Isaiah 58:5 יַצִּ֔יעַ he spreads as a bed

    Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?

    Here: 'He spreads out as a bed.' The verb means to make up a couch. The faster lies on sackcloth and ashes, as in Esther 4:3, where the same verb appears.

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