What does חֶדֶר (ḥeder) mean in the Bible?
A chamber is a room or inner space, whose purpose and occupants the account must identify. Joseph enters a private room to weep when he sees Benjamin, then washes his face and returns to the meal.
Hebrew · H2315
חֶדֶר
A chamber is a room or inner space, whose purpose and occupants the account must identify. Joseph enters a private room to weep when he sees Benjamin, then washes his face and returns to the meal.
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חֶדֶרH2315
Pronunciationḥeder
What does חֶדֶר (ḥeder) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for חֶדֶר (H2315) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H2315?
The BSB source-word alignment has 38 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include room (4), . . . (3), in a bedroom (2), in an inner (2), in her room (2).
Where does חֶדֶר (ḥeder) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 43:30. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (6), 1 Kings (5), 2 Kings (4), Judges (4).
What This Word Actually Means
A chamber is a room or inner space, whose purpose and occupants the account must identify. Joseph enters a private room to weep when he sees Benjamin, then washes his face and returns to the meal. In the account of Athaliah's violence, Jehosheba hides Joash and his nurse in a bedroom so that the child is not killed. Proverbs speaks of rooms filled through knowledge within its teaching about a house built by wisdom.
Privacy, protective concealment and wisely established household life therefore appear in distinct settings. The room itself is not a spiritual technique or a guarantee of safety. Its significance follows what people do there and what the passage actually says. Private grief should not be treated as unbelief, and a room used to protect a threatened child must not become a command to conceal an aggressor's wrongdoing.
How the Bible Uses It
Joseph's private weeping, Joash's concealment from murderous violence and wisdom's furnished rooms show distinct uses of an inner space. The room supports the account's stated action rather than determining a single moral or spiritual meaning.
- Gen.43.30
Joseph hurried out because he was moved to tears for his brother, and he went to a private room to weep.
Joseph withdraws because he is moved to tears for Benjamin, then washes his face and returns; the account describes his private emotion without calling it spiritual failure.
- 2Kgs.11.2
But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
Jehosheba hides Joash and his nurse in a bedroom during the killing of royal heirs; the action preserves the child from Athaliah rather than protecting the aggressor from accountability.
- Prov.24.4
Through knowledge its rooms are filled with every precious and beautiful treasure.
Rooms filled through knowledge belong to the preceding picture of a house built by wisdom and established by understanding, not a formula promising every learner material luxury.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itroom4×Judges 3:24, Judges 16:9, 1 Kings 22:25, 2 Chronicles 18:24
. . .3×2 Samuel 4:7, 1 Kings 20:30, 2 Kings 9:2
in a bedroom2×2 Kings 11:2, 2 Chronicles 22:11
in an inner2×1 Kings 22:25, 2 Chronicles 18:24
in her room2×Judges 15:1, Judges 16:12
into the inmost being2×Proverbs 18:8, Proverbs 26:22
an inner room1×1 Kings 20:30
and inside1×Deuteronomy 32:25
and the constellations1×Job 9:9
and up to your bedroom1×Exodus 8:3
at the shrine1×Ezekiel 8:12
bedroom1×2 Samuel 13:10
chambers1×Psalms 105:30
cleanse the inmost parts1×Proverbs 20:30
even in your bedroom1×Ecclesiastes 10:20
his inmost being1×Proverbs 20:27
his room1×Joel 2:16
in his bedroom1×1 Kings 1:15
in your bedroom1×2 Kings 6:12
into the bedroom1×2 Samuel 13:10
its chamber1×Job 37:9
its rooms1×Proverbs 24:4
rooms1×1 Chronicles 28:11
the chamber1×Song Of Solomon 3:4
the chambers1×Proverbs 7:27
to a private room1×Genesis 43:30
to an inner room1×2 Kings 9:2
to his chambers1×Song Of Solomon 1:4
your rooms1×Isaiah 26:20
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 43:30הַחַ֖דְרָהtoto a private roomArticle | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singularExodus 8:3וּבַחֲדַ֥רtoand up to your bedroomConjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular constructDeuteronomy 32:25וּמֵחֲדָרִ֖יםtoand insideConjunctive waw, Preposition-m | Noun - masculine pluralJudges 3:24בַּחֲדַ֥רtoroomPreposition-b | Noun - masculine singular constructJudges 15:1הֶחָ֑דְרָהtoin her roomArticle | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singularJudges 16:9בַּחֶ֔דֶרtoroomPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularJudges 16:12בֶּחָ֑דֶרtoin her roomPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular2 Samuel 4:7בַּחֲדַ֣רto. . .Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct2 Samuel 13:10הַחֶ֔דֶרtointo the bedroomArticle | Noun - masculine singular2 Samuel 13:10הֶחָֽדְרָה׃tobedroomArticle | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 43:30
Aligned rows38
Books represented17
Genesis1Exodus1Deuteronomy1Judges42 Samuel31 Kings52 Kings41 Chronicles12 Chronicles3Job2Psalms1Proverbs6Ecclesiastes1Song Of Solomon2Isaiah1Ezekiel1Joel1
Source forms
חַדְרֵי־5xḥaḏ·rê-Proverbs 7:27, Proverbs 18:8, Proverbs 20:27, Proverbs 20:30
חֶ֥דֶר4xḥe·ḏer1 Kings 20:30, 1 Kings 22:25, 2 Kings 9:2, 2 Chronicles 18:24
בַּחֲדַ֣ר3xba·ḥă·ḏar2 Samuel 4:7, 2 Kings 11:2, 2 Chronicles 22:11
בְּחֶ֖דֶר2xbə·ḥe·ḏer1 Kings 22:25, 2 Chronicles 18:24
בַּחֲדַ֥ר2xba·ḥă·ḏarJudges 3:24, 2 Kings 6:12
בֶּחָ֑דֶר1xbe·ḥā·ḏerJudges 16:12
בַּחֶ֔דֶר1xba·ḥe·ḏerJudges 16:9
בְּחָֽדֶר׃1xbə·ḥā·ḏer2 Kings 9:2
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine plural construct5xProverbs 7:27, Proverbs 18:8, Proverbs 20:27, Proverbs 20:30
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct5xJudges 3:24, 2 Samuel 4:7, 2 Kings 6:12, 2 Kings 11:2
Article | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular4xGenesis 43:30, Judges 15:1, 2 Samuel 13:10, 1 Kings 1:15
Noun - masculine singular4x1 Kings 20:30, 1 Kings 22:25, 2 Kings 9:2, 2 Chronicles 18:24
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular4x1 Kings 20:30, 1 Kings 22:25, 2 Kings 9:2, 2 Chronicles 18:24
Article | Noun - masculine singular2x2 Samuel 13:10, Job 37:9
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct2xPsalms 105:30, Ezekiel 8:12
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular2xJudges 16:9, Judges 16:12
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Respect ordinary grief and protective privacy while recognizing that this study supplies no individualized safeguarding plan.
- Avoid turning a named prophetic room instruction or an inner-room prayer teaching into a universal command to isolate.
Avoid claiming...
- An inner room does not guarantee safety or divine approval, because each occurrence receives its purpose from the surrounding action.
- Private weeping is not labeled unbelief in Joseph's account, and protecting Joash is not permission to conceal an aggressor's wrongdoing.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Interior private space—typically a bedroom or inner chamber, emphasizing seclusion and intimacy
Source Gloss
an apartment (usually literal)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Interior private space—typically a bedroom or inner chamber, emphasizing seclusion and intimacy
an apartment (usually literal) BDB: chamber Usage: ((bed) inner) chamber, innermost(-ward) part, parlour, south, × within.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
inner recesses of the body or innermost being, figurative sense
innermost parts of person, metaphor for conscience or soul
rooms or compartments of a house, literal architectural spaces
inner recesses, figurative innermost being paralleling Proverbs 18:8
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 38 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
חֶדֶר is built from this root:
חָדַרH2314
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
The bedroom in Second Kings appears within a lethal threat to the royal children. Jehosheba takes Joash and his nurse away and hides them so that he is not killed. The passage identifies protection of a vulnerable person as the purpose of the concealment; it does not ask readers to preserve the perpetrator's reputation. Joseph's room serves another purpose, giving him a private place to weep before he returns to the meal.
Proverbs uses rooms in its picture of wisdom, understanding and knowledge establishing a household. These settings require different teaching because a room does not decide whether secrecy is caring, harmful or ordinary. Readers must trace who is within the space, what is being done and whose wellbeing is affected. The selected accounts support honest attention to grief and danger without turning privacy into a universal spiritual method or assuming every unseen action has the same moral character.
Anchor passage
2Kgs.11.2
Doctrinal connections
- Genesis 43:29-32 places Joseph's private tears between his greeting of Benjamin and his return to the prepared meal.
- Second Kings 11:1-4 names Athaliah's killing, Jehosheba's protective action and Joash's continued concealment in the Lord's house.
- Second Chronicles 22:10-12 recounts the same preservation and identifies Jehoshabeath's family relation and marriage to Jehoiada.
- Proverbs 24:3-6 connects the established house and furnished rooms with wisdom, understanding, knowledge and sound guidance.
- Isaiah 26:19-21 directs the people into rooms for a little while within an oracle of the Lord's coming judgment and exposed bloodshed.
- Ecclesiastes 10:20 warns about speech even in a bedroom through its stated picture of words carried and reported.
The licensed Hebrew chamber family concerns a room or inner part. The selected narratives specify a private room and bedroom, while wisdom and prophetic contexts supply their own uses. The word does not by itself identify a prayer practice, the morality of concealment or the physical security of a particular building.
From Old to New Testament
Matthew 6:5-6 directs prayer in an inner room in contrast to prayer performed to be seen. That separately stated Greek teaching can illuminate a particular use of privacy without converting Joseph's grief, Joash's protection or every Hebrew chamber into the same prayer instruction. The purpose of each inner space must remain visible.