Abraham's bosom

Abraham's bosom is an expression appearing in Jesus's parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22–23), where the poor Lazarus dies and is carried by angels to rest at Abraham's side—a place of comfort, rest, and honor. The image reflects the custom of reclining at table on couches, where a guest's head would rest near the chest of the person reclining above him; to be in Abraham's bosom was thus to occupy the place of closest intimacy and honor at the patriarch's banquet table in Paradise.

In Jewish thought the phrase described the highest state of blessedness in the afterlife, and Jesus employs it to affirm both the reversal of earthly fortunes after death and the reality of conscious existence and distinction in the intermediate state.