BOLSTER

bol'-ster: Found in the King James Version only in 1 Samuel 19:13,16, "Behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at the head thereof" (the King James Version "for his bolster"), and 1 Samuel 26:7,11-12,16, "Saul lay sleeping .... with his spear stuck in the ground at his head." "Bolster" in these passages in the King James Version was used to translate a Hebrew word whose true significance is "the place of the head," or "the head-place." It will be noted that it has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), which rightly has throughout "head," instead of "bolster."

See CUSHION .

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.