Cottage
is employed in our version for three Hebrew words. SEE BOOTH.
1. סֻכָּה, sukkah', signifies a hut made of boughs (Isa 1:8), and is usually elsewhere translated "booth." It was anciently the custom in the East, as it still is, to erect little temporary sheds, covered with leaves, straw, or turf, giving shelter from the heat by day and the cold dews at night to the watchman that kept the garden or vineyard while the fruit was ripening, which otherwise might be stolen, or destroyed by jackals. These erections, being intended only for the occasion, were of the very slightest fabric, and when the fruits were gathered were either taken down, or left to fall to pieces, or were blown down during the winter (Job 27:18). SEE LODGE.
2. מליּנָה, melunah' (fem. of מָלוֹן, an inn), signifies properly a lodging- place, and is associated with the booth ("cottage") in the above passage (Isa 1:8), where it is translated "lodge," being probably a somewhat slighter structure, if possible, as a cucumber patch is more temporary than a vineyard. It also occurs in Isa 24:20, in the mistranslated expression "and shall be removed [i.e. shaken about] like a cottage," where it denotes a hanging-bed or hammock suspended from trees, in which travelers, and especially the watchmen in gardens, were accustomed to sleep during summer, so as to be out of the reach of wild animals. The swinging of these aptly corresponds with the staggering of a drunken man. Or it may, perhaps, more appropriately denote here those frail structures of boughs, supported by a few poles, which the Orientals use for the same purpose.
3. In Zep 2:6, the original term is כֹּרֹת, keroth' (literally diggings), i.e. pits for holding water, and, instead of "dwellings [and] cottages for shepherds," it should be rendered "fields full of shepherds' cisterns," for watering their flocks; that is, the sites of the cities of Philistia should be occupied for pastoral purposes. This word does not occur elsewhere.
The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature was edited by John McClintock and James Strong. It contains nearly 50,000 articles pertaining to Biblical and other religious literature, people, creeds, etc. It is a fantastic research tool for broad Christian study.
John McClintock was born October 27, 1814 in Philadelphia to Irish immigrants, John and Martha McClintock. He began as a clerk in his father's store, and then became a bookkeeper in the Methodist Book Concern in New York. Here he converted to Methodism and considered joining the ministry. McClintock entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 and graduated with high honors three years later. Subsequently, he was awarded a doctorate of divinity degree from the same institution in 1848.WikipediaRead More