Bible Dictionary
COUCHING-PLACE
A couching-place is a place where animals lie down and rest. In prophetic imagery, the absence or desolation of such resting places represents a land made empty.
Definition
A couching-place is a place where animals lie down in repose. The word may refer simply to a resting place for animals rather than to a constructed couch.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses the image of animals’ resting places to suggest desolation when such places are absent or made empty.
Historical Background
The figure is associated with lands or regions laid waste, where customary places of animal repose no longer remain.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>kouch'-ing-plas (marbets; once in English Versions of the Bible, Eze 25:5): The same Hebrew word, however, which means simply "place of lying down" of animals in repose, is used also in Ze 2:15 where the translation is "a place .... to lie down in." The figure, a common one in Scripture (see besides, Isa 17:2; 27:10), suggests desolation.</p>