Chamber

See Chambers

See UPPER ROOM.

Chamber. Gen 43:30; 2Sa 18:33; Psa 19:5; Dan 6:10. The word chamber, in these passages, has much the same significance as with us, meaning the private rooms of the house -- the guest chamber, as with us, meaning a room set apart for the accommodation of the visiting friend. Mar 14:14-15; Luk 22:12. The upper chamber was used, more particularly, for the lodgment of strangers. Act 9:37.

(the translation of various Hebrews words). Oriental houses have in general a court in the center, with cloisters and a gallery, into which the chambers open, the apartments of the women being at the back, and only to be approached by passing through the others. Toward the street is a dead wall, with a porch, over which is a chamber, sometimes used as a lodging for guests, and sometimes as a store-room, it being well suited for either of these purposes, by being connected with the rest of the house by a door in the gallery, and having a separate staircase opening into the porch. This is the "chamber on the wall" (עֲלַיִּתאּקַיר, wall-loft, Sept. ὐπέρῳον) which the Shunamite prepared for the prophet Elisha (2Ki 4:10). Such an "upper chamber" (ὐπέρῳον) is still the guestchamber. where entertainments are made, which was the custom with the Greeks as well as the Jews (Mat 9:14; Mar 14:14). Among the former it occupied the upper story; among the Hebrews it seems to have been on, or connected with, the flat roof of their dwellings (comp. Act 20:8). These upper chambers were also sometimes used for the performance of idolatrous rites (2Ki 23:12), and in them the bodies of the dead were laid out (Act 9:37). The early Christians, too, held their meetings for worship in such places. Besides these, there were inner chambers, or a "chamber within a chamber" (1Ki 22:25), such as that into which the messenger of Elisha retired to anoint Jehu (2Ki 9:2). SEE HOUSE.

The term chamber is used metaphorically in many places of the Scriptures, as Psa 104:3; Psa 104:13; Pro 7:27. To apply ourselves to earnest prayer and supplication, and to depend on the promises and providence of God for special protection, is to enter into our chambers, that we may be safe, as the Hebrews were in their houses, from the destroying angel (Isa 26:20). SEE BED-CHAMBER.

The "chambers of the south" (Job 9:9) are the constellations, or clusters of stars, belonging to the southern part of the firmament. SEE ASTRONOMY.

The term "Chambers of Imagery" (חִדְרֵי מִשְׂכַּיח, figure-apartments; Sept. κοιτῶν κρυπτός) is used by the prophet Ezekiel (Eze 8:12) to denote the vision which he had of the abominations practiced by the Jews in the distant Jerusalem. As the practices there denounced were evidently borrowed from their Chaldaean oppressors, they derive striking elucidation from the gorgeous halls of the Assyrian palaces lately brought to light by Layard, with their long lines of sculptured animals, and kings worshipping before them (Nineveh, 2:209). SEE IMAGERY.

"Chambering" (κόται) signifies in Rom 14:13, that lewd association with courtesans and similar characters that was a peculiar feature of the heathenism of that age. SEE HARLOT.

Chamber

in architectural usage, is a room or apartment, distinguished from the hall, chapel, etc. The great chamber usually adjoined, or was contiguous to, the hall, and answered to the modern drawing-room, or withdrawing-room. The camera of an abbot or prior means his suite of lodgings in. the establishment. The guest chamber was usually over the buttery and pantry, at the lower end of the hall, in a medieval house, and in monasteries near the entrance. In some instances there was a separate hall called the Guesten-hall, as at Worcester.

Chamber. Gen 43:30. Usually, the private apartments of a house are called chambers. 2Sa 18:33; Psa 19:5; Dan 6:10. Particular rooms of this class in Eastern houses were designated by significant terms.

Guest-chamber. Mar 14:14. This we may suppose to have been a spacious unoccupied room, usually in the upper part of the house, and furnished suitably for the reception and entertainment of guests and for social meetings. The proverbial hospitality of the Jews would make such provision necessary, and especially at Jerusalem, in festival seasons, when every house in the city was the stranger’s home. Mar 14:15; Luk 22:12; Act 1:13.

Inner Chamber. 2Ki 9:2. A chamber within another chamber.

Little Chamber. 2Ki 4:10. An apartment built upon and projecting from the walls of the main house, and communicating by a private door with the house, and by a private stairway with the street.

Upper Chamber, or Loft, Act 9:37, occupied the front part of the building, over the gate or outer entrance, and was used to lodge strangers. Comp. 1Ki 17:19; 1Ki 17:23 with 2Ki 4:10.

CHAMBER.—See Closet, and Guest-Chamber.

CHAMBER.—Now obsolescent, is used by AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in a variety of connexions where modern usage employs ‘room,’ as e.g. ‘bed-chamber,’ ‘upper chamber,’ etc. See, generally. House. For the Temple chambers, see Temple.

chām´bẽr (the translation of the following Hebrew words: חדר, ḥedher, חפה, ḥuppāh, יציע, yācı̄^a‛, יצוּע, yācū^a‛, לשׁכּה, lishkāh, נשׁכּה, nishkāh, עליּה, ‛ălı̄yāh, צלע, cēlā‛, and the Aramaic word עלּית, ‛illı̄th): For the most part the word chamber is the expression of an idea which would be adequately expressed by the English word “room,” in accordance with an earlier use of the word, now little employed. For the arrangement of rooms in a Hebrew house, see HOUSE. Ḥedher is a word of frequent occurrence, and designates a private room. Ḥuppāh is translated “chamber” only in Psa 19:5, where it is used in connection with “bridegroom,” and means a bridal chamber. The same Hebrew word used of the bride in Joe 2:16 is rendered “closet.” Yācı̄^a‛ and yācū^a‛ are found only in 1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:6, 1Ki 6:10 (the King James Version only in all the passages), yācū^a‛ being the reading of K^ethı̄bh and yācı̄^a‛ of Ḳ^erē in each ease. Here the meaning is really “story,” as given in the Revised Version (British and American), except in 1Ki 6:6, where doubtless the text should be changed to read ha-cēlā‛, “the side-chamber.” Lishkāh, a frequent word, and the equivalent nishkāh, infrequent, are used ordinarily of a room in the temple utilized for sacred purposes, occasionally of a room in the palace. ‛Ǎlı̄yāh and the equivalent Aramaic ‛illı̄th signify “a roof chamber,” i.e. a chamber built on the flat roof of a house. Cēlā‛, when used of a chamber, designates a side-chamber of the temple. It is usually rendered “side-chamber,” but “chamber” in 1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:8 (the King James Version), where the Revised Version (British and American) has “side-chamber.”

Pro 7:27 (b) A description of the departments in hell where sinners are punished according to their deserts.

Son 1:4 (c) The different experiences of blessing in the Christian life are compared to chambers in the palace of the king.

Isa 26:20 (b) This refers to those times in the believer’s life when he retires from the busy public life to be alone with the Lord.

Mat 24:26 (b) Here is indicated that rumors should spread abroad that our Lord had hidden Himself in some secret place on earth in order to appear suddenly in judgment.