Lodge

Lodge in Scripture refers to a temporary shelter or watchman's hut set up in a field or vineyard to guard the ripening harvest. Isaiah 1:8 uses the image powerfully in his lament over Judah: the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers—suggesting the desolation of a harvest shed abandoned after the fruit is gathered, surrounded and alone. The Hebrew melunah refers to such a rudimentary shelter of woven branches or thatch, erected seasonally and then left to decay.

Isaiah 24:20 uses a related image: the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage. The fragility of the temporary lodging serves as a metaphor for the impermanence of earthly existence and security—a theme the Hebrew wisdom tradition frequently employs. In the New Testament, to lodge (Greek katalyo or aulizesthai) simply means to find lodging for the night, as Jesus and his disciples lodged in Bethany during the passion week (Matt. 21:17).