A couch (for sleep, sickness, sitting or eating)
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G2825, klínē, is a Greek noun for a bed, mat, couch, or place used for lying or reclining. Its nine New Testament occurrences include the portable mat of a paralyzed man, ordinary household beds, couches used for dining, a child's bed, and an explicitly named bed of sickness.
Reader summary
Full entry for κλίνη (G2825) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2825, klínē, is a Greek noun for a bed, mat, couch, or place used for lying or reclining. Its nine New Testament occurrences include the portable mat of a paralyzed man, ordinary household beds, couches used for dining, a child's bed, and an explicitly named bed of sickness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a bed (2), a mat (2), bed (2), a bed of sickness (1), couches for dining (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Mark (3), Matthew (2), Revelation (1).
G2825, klínē, is a Greek noun for a bed, mat, couch, or place used for lying or reclining. Its nine New Testament occurrences include the portable mat of a paralyzed man, ordinary household beds, couches used for dining, a child's bed, and an explicitly named bed of sickness. The noun identifies the object or reclining place. It does not tell the reader whether the person is sleeping, ill, disabled, eating, sharing nighttime space, being healed, or facing judgment until the surrounding passage supplies that information.
Matthew 9 shows some men bringing a paralyzed man on his mat and later records Jesus telling him to carry it home. The mat helps the narrative show both embodied dependence and restored movement, but it does not make disability evidence of personal sin. Mark 7 uses the noun for dining couches and for the bed on which a mother finds her child after Jesus' deliverance.
Luke 17 places two people in one bed during the sudden revelation of the Son of Man; the noun establishes nighttime proximity, not their sex, relationship, or moral condition. Revelation 2:22 explicitly speaks of a bed of sickness within Christ's judgment and call to repentance in Thyatira. That judgment oracle supplies no warrant for treating other illness, disability, or confinement to bed as proof of sexual sin or divine punishment.
G2825 helps readers attend to the ordinary places where vulnerability, care, meals, sleep, healing, warning, and judgment enter biblical scenes. Responsible teaching keeps the concrete object visible and lets each narrative determine its significance.
G2825 names a bed, portable mat, dining couch, or reclining place. The object may appear in healing, household, teaching, nighttime, or judgment contexts, but it carries none of those meanings automatically.
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.”
The mat carries a man who depends on others to reach Jesus. Jesus' declaration displays His authority to forgive, but the verse does not identify paralysis as punishment for personal sin.
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.
The plural noun identifies dining couches within a list of washed objects, establishing that klínē is not limited to a sleeping bed or sickbed.
And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
The bed locates the child when her mother returns and confirms Jesus' prior declaration. The deliverance belongs to the Gospel scene, not to the furniture.
I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left.
The bed supplies nighttime proximity within Jesus' warning about the Son of Man. The noun does not identify the people's sex, relationship, conduct, or spiritual condition.
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.
The verse explicitly makes the bed a setting of judgment and joins it to repentance. This use cannot be generalized into a diagnosis of people confined to bed.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. a couch (for sleep, sickness, sitting or eating)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read versea couch, bed, mat, bier
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
κλίνη is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Matthew 9:2 places a paralyzed man on a portable mat carried by men who bring him to Jesus. The mat shows embodied need and communal care, while Jesus' words and the later command to rise display His authority. The passage does not say that the man's paralysis was caused by his personal sin. Mark 7:4 uses klínē for dining couches in a list of objects associated with washing traditions, confirming that the noun is broader than a sleeping bed.
Mark 7:30 then locates a child on her bed after Jesus tells her mother that the demon has left. Luke 17:34 places two people in one bed during Jesus' warning about sudden separation at the revelation of the Son of Man. The noun supplies nighttime proximity without identifying sex, marriage, intimacy, or moral status. Revelation 2:22 alone names a bed of sickness within a specific judgment oracle and call to repentance.
That occurrence cannot turn every illness or disability into punishment. Klínē remains a concrete furnishing whose theological role comes from the people, actions, and declarations around it. Churches should let beds and mats remind them of accessible care, embodied dignity, ordinary household life, and the need to resist stigma.
Matt.9.2
G2825 is a feminine noun appearing in singular and plural genitive or accusative forms. Translation varies among mat, bed, couch, and dining couch because use and setting govern the concrete object. Its derivation from G2827 does not import every sense of inclining or bowing into the noun.
Old Testament beds and couches can belong to sleep, illness, hospitality, intimacy, mourning, or judgment. The New Testament continues that concrete range while focusing these selected scenes on care, healing, teaching, readiness, and repentance. Each Hebrew or Greek term retains its own identity, so shared furniture imagery cannot erase lexical and covenant differences.