To stop (usually over night); by implication, to stay permanently ; hence (in a bad sense) to be obstinate (especially in words, to complain)
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H3885 means to lodge or remain, especially overnight, and in another recurring sense to grumble or complain. 2, Lot offers travelers washing, shelter, and an overnight stay rather than leaving them in the square.
Reader summary
Full entry for לוּן (H3885) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3885 means to lodge or remain, especially overnight, and in another recurring sense to grumble or complain. 2, Lot offers travelers washing, shelter, and an overnight stay rather than leaving them in the square.
The BSB source-word alignment has 83 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include spend the night (6), grumbled (5), to spend the night (5), . . . (2), and spend the night (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 19:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Judges (13), Genesis (9), Numbers (9), Job (8).
H3885 means to lodge or remain, especially overnight, and in another recurring sense to grumble or complain. In Gen. 19. 2, Lot offers travelers washing, shelter, and an overnight stay rather than leaving them in the square. In Exod. 15. 24, the people grumble when they lack drinkable water. In Lev. 19. 13, an employer must not let a hired worker's wages remain unpaid overnight.
H3885 opens teaching on hospitality, temporary shelter, legitimate material need, distrustful complaint, timely pay, guarded service, and thoughts allowed to remain. It does not condemn every lament, excuse wage theft, or require hosts to ignore safety. Its complaint sense must be heard alongside the concrete needs and covenant story named in each wilderness episode.
H3885 describes spending the night, giving lodging, remaining or dwelling, leaving objects or bodies overnight, harboring thoughts, and repeated communal grumbling. The concrete staying sense and complaint sense must be distinguished by form and context.
And said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
Lot offers travelers water, food, and protected lodging rather than exposure in the city square.
So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
The people grumble against Moses when the available water is undrinkable, exposing both a real need and fragile trust.
You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
A hired worker's earned wages must not remain with the employer overnight.
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.
Hebrew word. To lodge overnight develops into stubborn complaint; spatial dwelling becomes verbal obstinacy against God.
To lodge overnight develops into stubborn complaint; spatial dwelling becomes verbal obstinacy against God.
to stop (usually over night); by implication, to stay permanently; hence (in a bad sense) to be obstinate (especially in words, to complain) BDB: murmur Usage: abide (all night), continue, dwell, endure, grudge, be left, lie all night, (cause to) lodge (all night, in, -ing, this night), (make to) murmur, remain, tarry (all night, that night).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 87 lexical occurrence verses.
לוּן is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3885 connects what stays overnight with what settles into communal speech. Hospitality gives a traveler safe lodging, guards remain at their stations, and workers depend on wages that must not remain in an employer's possession until morning. Time itself becomes an ethical factor: unnecessary delay can endanger a body, disrespect the dead, or exploit a poor worker.
Exodus uses the same root for grumbling as Israel faces thirst and hunger. The material needs are real, and God provides, yet the speech also reveals distrust and distorted memory. Faithful application hears complaints carefully enough to distinguish truthful lament, urgent reporting, manipulative rumor, and settled resentment. It provides food, water, shelter, pay, and safe channels before rebuking tone.
It also asks which thoughts are being allowed to lodge in the heart and brings them into truth rather than letting harm remain overnight.
Lev.19.13
H3885 is a Hebrew verb with senses of lodging, remaining, leaving overnight, and grumbling. Different stems and prepositions help distinguish physical staying from complaint directed against someone.
The New Testament commands hospitality, prompt and just treatment of workers, and speech without grumbling, while also preserving laments and urgent appeals for help. Jesus receives travelers and hears urgent cries, while apostolic teaching joins hospitality and timely justice with warnings against corrosive grumbling.