'Lay' in the Bible

Then he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself out on him and held him, the boy’s skin became warm.

So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

When a messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” he said, “Put them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

‘Have you not heard [asks the God of Israel]?Long ago I did it;From ancient times I planned it.Now I have brought it to pass,That you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Then Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And they brought it and placed it on the [painful] inflammation, and he recovered.”

In the third month [at the end of wheat harvest] they began to make the heaps, and they finished them in the seventh month.

Then Josiah contributed to the lay people, to all who were present, flocks of lambs and young goats numbering 30,000, all as Passover offerings, and 3,000 bulls—these were from the king’s property.

Then they removed the burnt offerings, to distribute them to the sections of the fathers’ households of the lay people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the bulls.

to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had restored its Sabbaths; for as long as the land lay desolate it kept Sabbath until seventy years were complete.

We set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and He rescued us from the hand of the enemy and those who lay in ambushes along the way.

But I warned them, saying, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you.” From that time on, they did not come on the Sabbath.

In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the door, became angry and conspired to attack King Ahasuerus.

In each and every province that the decree and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

It was found written there how Mordecai had reported that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, had planned to attack King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).

The Jews assembled in their cities throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to apprehend those who wanted to do them harm; and no one could stand before them, for the fear of them [and their God] had fallen on all the peoples.

“There is no arbitrator between us,Who could lay his hand upon us both [would that there were].

“How long will you hunt for words and continue these speeches?Do some clear thinking and show understanding and then we can talk.

“A snare catches him by the heel,And a trap snaps shut on him.

“Look at me and be astonished and appalled;And put your hand over your mouth.

“Please receive the law and instruction from His mouthAnd establish His words in your heart and keep them.

And place your gold in the dust,And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks [considering it of little value],

“I would present my cause before HimAnd fill my mouth with arguments.

“Behold, I am of little importance and contemptible; what can I reply to You?I lay my hand on my mouth.

“Lay your hand on him;Remember the battle [with him]; you will not do such [an ill-advised thing] again!

I lay down and slept [safely];I awakened, for the Lord sustains me.

Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me;And let him trample my life to the groundAnd lay my honor in the dust. Selah.

How long must I take counsel in my soul,Having sorrow in my heart day after day?How long will my enemy exalt himself and triumph over me?

Those who seek my life lay snares for me,And those who seek to injure me threaten mischievous things and destruction;They devise treachery all the day long.

But God will break you down forever;He will take you away and tear you away from your tent,And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.

They concoct crafty schemes against Your people,And conspire together against Your hidden and precious ones.

The bird has found a house,And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young—Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,My King and my God.

Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,Nor of the destruction (sudden death) that lays waste at noon.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,And happy [blessed, considered fortunate, to be admired] is everyone who holds her tightly.

My son, keep my wordsAnd treasure my commandments within you [so they are readily available to guide you].

The ants are not a strong people,Yet they prepare their food in the summer;

If you have foolishly exalted yourself,Or if you have plotted evil, put your hand on your mouth.

I explored with my mind how to gratify myself with wine while [at the same time] having my mind remain steady and guide me wisely; and how to take control of foolishness, until I could see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

It is better to go to the house of mourningThan to go to the house of feasting,For that [day of death] is the end of every man,And the living will take it to heart and solemnly ponder its meaning.

“I will turn it into a wasteland;It will not be pruned or cultivated,But briars and thorns will come up.I will also command the clouds not to rain on it.”

Ephraim and Judah will [unite and] swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines toward the west;Together they will plunder the sons (Arabs) of the east.They will possess Edom and Moab,And the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.

In this way I will punish the world for its evilAnd the wicked for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proudAnd will abase the arrogance of the tyrant.

“Then I will set on his shoulder the key of the house of David;When he opens no one will shut,When he shuts no one will open.

The high fortifications of your walls He will bring down,Lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

Those who cause a person to be condemned with a [false] word,And lay a trap for him who upholds justice at the [city] gate,And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

There the arrow snake will make her nest and lay her eggs,And hatch them and gather her young under her protection;Indeed, the birds of prey will be gathered there [to breed],Every one with its own kind.

And the burning sand (mirage) will become a pool [of water]And the thirsty ground springs of water;In the haunt of jackals, where they lay resting,Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

“Have you not heard [says the God of Israel]That I did it long ago,That I planned it in ancient times?Now I have brought it to pass,That you [king of Assyria] would [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Now Isaiah had said, “Have them take a cake of figs and rub it [as an ointment] on the inflamed spot, that he may recover.”

“I will lay waste the mountains and hillsAnd wither all their vegetation;I will turn the rivers into coastlandsAnd dry up the ponds.

Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His angerAnd the fierceness of battle;And engulfed him in fire,Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach];It burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

“Remember this, and take courage;Take it to heart, you rebellious and disloyal people.

“And you said, ‘I shall be a queen forevermore.’You did not consider these things,Nor did you [seriously] remember the [ultimate] outcome of such conduct.

I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the [renewed] heavens and lay the foundations of the [renewed] earth, and to say to Zion (Jerusalem), ‘You are My people.’”

“O you afflicted [city], storm-tossed, and not comforted,Listen carefully, I will set your [precious] stones in mortar,And lay your foundations with sapphires.

Therefore, thus says the Lord,“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.The fathers and the sons togetherWill stumble against them;The neighbor and his friend will perish.”

“They seize bow and spear;They are cruel and inhuman and have no mercy.Their voice sounds like the roaring sea;They ride [in formation] on horses,Arrayed as a man for battleAgainst you, O Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)!”

Behold, [in the restored Jerusalem] I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace (prosperity, security, stability) and truth.

Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men whom he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one which King Asa [of Judah] had made [about three hundred years earlier] on account of King Baasha of Israel [believing that Baasha would lay siege to Mizpah]. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with [the bodies of] those who were killed.

“They seize their bow and spear;They are cruel and have no compassion.They sound like the roaring of the sea;They ride on horses,Every man equipped like a man [ready] for the battleAgainst you, O Daughter of Babylon.

The Lord determined to lay in ruinsThe [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion.He has stretched out a line,He has not stopped His hand from destroying.He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament (mourn in grief);They have languished together.

Our pursuers were swifterThan the eagles of the sky;They pursued us on the mountains,They waited in ambush for us in the wilderness.

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood.

“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you and inscribe on it [a diagram of] the city of Jerusalem.

Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

I will also lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their [Canaanite] idols; and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

in order that I may take hold of the heart (mind) of the house of Israel who are all estranged from Me because of their idols.”’

while they (Ammonite prophets) see false visions [of peace] for you, while they divine lies [of escape] for you—to place you [of Ammon] on the headless bodies of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, whose time of the final punishment is here.

She did not give up the acts of prostitution that originated during her time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their depravity on her.

therefore, behold, I will deprive the flank of Moab of its cities which are on its frontiers, the glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon and Kiriathaim.

I will take My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom in accordance with My anger and My wrath, and they will know and experience My vengeance,” says the Lord God.

I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes and chastisements and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance on them.”’”

Also they will take your riches as spoil and plunder your merchandise, and tear down your walls and your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timber and the debris [from your city] out in the water.

Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones and remove their robes and take off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble again and again, and be appalled at you.

“Your heart was proud and arrogant because of your beauty;You destroyed your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.I cast you to the ground;I lay you before kings,That they might look at you.

“I will destroy your citiesAnd you will become a wasteland.Then you shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

I will also save you from all your uncleanness, and I will call for the grain and make it abundant, and I will not bring famine on you.

I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and I will put breath in you so that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Then he (the angel) said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, are the holy chambers where the priests who are close to the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall place the most holy things—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy.

When the priests enter [the Holy Place], they shall not go out from the sanctuary into the outer court unless they lay there their garments in which they minister, for these are holy (set apart). They shall put on other garments before they approach that which is for the people.”

When they go out into the outer court, into the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off the garments in which they have been ministering and leave them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other clothing so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their [ceremonial] garments.

‘The visions that passed through my mind as I lay on my bed were these: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the middle of the earth, and its height was great.

‘And behold, I saw in the visions of my mind as I lay on my bed, an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven.

“I will destroy her vines and her fig treesOf which she has said, ‘These are my wagesWhich my lovers have given me.’And I will make them a forest,And the animals of the open country will devour them.

“They stretch out beside every [pagan] altar on clothes taken in pledge [to secure a loan, disregarding God’s command],And in the house of their God [in contempt of Him] they frivolously drink the wine [which has been] taken from those who have been fined.

Then they called on the Lord and said, “Please, O Lord, do not let us perish because of taking this man’s life, and do not make us accountable for innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as You pleased.”

Therefore I [the Lord] shall make Samaria a heap of ruins [and of stones and arable land] in the open country,A place for planting vineyards;And I will pour her stones down into the ravineAnd lay bare her foundations.

The [pagan] nations shall see [God’s omnipotence in delivering Israel] and be ashamedOf all their might [which cannot be compared to His].They shall put their hand on their mouth [in silent astonishment];Their ears shall be deaf.

Flocks will lie down in her midst,All the animals which range in herds;Both the pelican and the short-eared owlWill roost on the top of Nineveh’s pillars.Birds will sing in the window,Desolation will be on the threshold;For He has uncovered the cedar paneling.

For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into the hand of another and into the hands of his [foreign] king. And the enemy will strike the land, and I will not rescue the people from their hand.”

If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings [on the people]. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.

Jesus replied to him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

While He was saying these things to them, a ruler (synagogue official) entered [the house] and kneeled down and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”

He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said [He would]. Come! See the place where He was lying.

When they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus; and when they had dug out an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.

and begged anxiously with Him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; [please] come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will be healed and live.”

And wherever He came into villages, or cities, or the countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places and pleading with Him [to allow them] just to touch the fringe (tassel with a blue cord) of His robe; and all who touched it were healed.

After screaming out and throwing him into a terrible convulsion, it came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse [so still and pale] that many [of the spectators] said, “He is dead!”

they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

Some men came carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to bring him in and lay him down in front of Jesus.

And Jesus told him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”