International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
BOLSTERbol'-ster: Found in the King James Version only in 1 Samuel 19:13, 16, "Behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at the head thereof" (the King James Version "for his bolster"), and 1 Samuel 26:7, 11, 12, 16, "Saul lay sleeping. with his spear stuck in the ground at his head." "Bolster" in these passages in the King James Version was used to translate a Hebrew word whose true significance is "the place of the head," or "the head-place." It will be noted that it has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), which rightly has throughout "head," instead of "bolster."
See CUSHION.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The Hebrew word kebir, rendered "pillow" in
1 Samuel 19:13, 16, but in Revised Version marg. "quilt" or "network," probably means some counterpane or veil intended to protect the head of the sleeper. A different Hebrew word (meraashoth') is used for "bolster" (
1 Samuel 26:7, 11, 16). It is rightly rendered in Revised Version "at his head." In
Genesis 28:11, 18 the Authorized Version renders it "for his pillows," and the Revised Version "under his head." In
Ezek. 13:18, 20 another Hebrew word (kesathoth) is used, properly denoting "cushions" or "pillows," as so rendered both in the Authorized and the Revised Version.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
1. (
v. t.) To support, hold up, or maintain with difficulty or unusual effort; -- often with up.
2. (n.) A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support any part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
3. (n.) Anything arranged to act as a support, as in various forms of mechanism, etc.
4. (n.) A cushioned or a piece part of a saddle.
5. (n.) A cushioned or a piece of soft wood covered with tarred canvas, placed on the trestletrees and against the mast, for the collars of the shrouds to rest on, to prevent chafing.
6. (n.) Anything used to prevent chafing.
7. (n.) A plate of iron or a mass of wood under the end of a bridge girder, to keep the girder from resting directly on the abutment.
8. (n.) A transverse bar above the axle of a wagon, on which the bed or body rests.
9. (n.) The crossbeam forming the bearing piece of the body of a railway car; the central and principal cross beam of a car truck.
10. (n.) the perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
11. (n.) That part of a knife blade which abuts upon the end of the handle.
12. (n.) The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
13. (n.) The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
14. (n.) A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
15. (v. t.) To support with a bolster or pillow.
Strong's Hebrew
7226. raashoth -- bolster... raashoth. 7227 >>.
bolster. Transliteration: raashoth Phonetic Spelling:
(rah-ash-oth') Short Definition:
bolster. Word Origin the same as marashah, qv.
... /hebrew/7226.htm - 5k 4763. meraashoth -- a place at the head, head place
... bolster, head, pillow. Formed like mar'ashah; properly, a headpiece, ie (plural
for adverbial) at (or as) the head-rest (or pillow) -- bolster, head, pillow. ...
/hebrew/4763.htm - 6k
