קֻבָּה

From the study of Numbers 25:8

Range of meaning

The word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "vaulted tent" or "large tent with a curved or domed roof," and sometimes "alcove" or "inner room." The root seems to have to do with curving or hollowing, which is why YLT has "the hollow place." It is related to Arabic qubba, a domed tent or domed shrine.

Against the English

BSB, KJV and NIV have "tent." ESV and NJPS have "chamber." WEB has "pavilion." YLT has "hollow place." Plain "tent" makes it sound like the man's ordinary family tent (ʾohel). The writer chose an unusual word, and "the" points to a particular, recognisable structure.

How it drifted

Translators go for a safe, general word because a word found only once cannot be pinned down. The cost is that readers lose the hint that this was an unusual structure.

Used elsewhere in the period

Outside the Bible, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia, the qubba was a small domed tent, often of red leather, that held sacred objects. It was carried on camels and set up in camp as a portable shrine. Some scholars (for example Frank Moore Cross, in his work on the tabernacle) have compared it with Israel's own portable sanctuary. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) has "into the kaminos," a vaulted, oven-like chamber. The Latin Vulgate has "lupanar" (brothel), which is an interpretation rather than a translation.