Cottage

Cottage in the King James Bible translates two different Hebrew words referring to temporary shelters. The first (sukkah) appears in Isaiah 1:8 — the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers — describing a temporary booth or hut erected in a vineyard or field during harvest season to shelter the watchmen, then abandoned after harvest. Job 27:18 uses the same image: the house of the wicked is like a booth and like a hut the keeper makes.

The second Hebrew word (melunah, Isaiah 24:20) refers to a hammock or swinging hut, used in the vivid picture of the earth reeling like a drunkard and being moved like a cottage — a temporary dwelling so insubstantial it can be blown away. Zephaniah 2:6 uses a related term for the pastures and meadows of the seacoast. Together these images reflect the temporary and fragile nature of human habitation in contrast to the stability of the divine presence.