Coffer

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) Fig.: Treasure or funds; - usually in the plural.

(2): (n.) A casket, chest, or trunk; especially, one used for keeping money or other valuables.

(3): (n.) A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico; a caisson.

(4): (n.) A trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.

(5): (n.) The chamber of a canal lock; also, a caisson or a cofferdam.

(6): (v. t.) To put into a coffer.

(7): (v. t.) To secure from leaking, as a shaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering.

(8): (v. t.) To form with or in a coffer or coffers; to furnish with a coffer or coffers.

King James Dictionary

Coffer n.

1. A chest or trunk and as a chest is customarily used for keeping money, hence, 2. A chest of money a treasure. 3. In architecture, a square depression or sinking in each interval between the modillions of the Corinthian cornice, ordinarily filled with a rose, a pomegranate or other enrichment. 4. In fortification, a hollow lodgment across a dry moat, from 6 to 7 feet deep and from 16 to 18 broad the upper part made of pieces of timber, raised two feet above the level of the moat which little elevation has hurdles laden with earth for its covering, and serves as a parapet with embrasures. It is raised by the besieged to repulse besiegers when they endeavor to pass the ditch.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

COFFER occurs only in 1Sa 6:8;   1 Samuel 6:11;   1 Samuel 6:15 , and the Heb. term ’argâz , of which it is the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] , is also found nowhere else. It appears to have been a small chest which contained (?) the golden figures sent by the Philistines as a guilt-offering.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Coffer. (Hebrew, argaz ). A movable box hanging from the side of a cart.  1 Samuel 6:8;  1 Samuel 6:11;  1 Samuel 6:15. The word is found nowhere else.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The box or case in which the golden mice and the images of the emerods were placed by the Philistines when the ark was returned.  1 Samuel 6:8-15 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Coffer.  1 Samuel 6:8. A box or chest hanging from the side of a cart.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 6:8,11,15

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 6:15

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( אִרְגָּז , argaz'; Sept. Θέμα , Vulg. capsella), the receptacle (apparently a customary appendage to a cart, from the use of the article in every occurrence) which the Philistines placed beside the ark when they sent it home, and in which they deposited the golden mice and emerods that formed their trespass-offering ( 1 Samuel 6:8;  1 Samuel 6:11;  1 Samuel 6:15). The root seems to signify to be Shaken about; and Gesenius and Lee agree in regarding it as the same, or nearly the same thing, as the Arabian rijaza, which Jauhari describes as "a kind of wallet, into which stones are put: it is hung to one of the two sides of the haudaj [a litter borne by a camel or mule] when it inclines towards the other." Dr. Lee, however, thinks that the Hebrew word denotes the wallet itself; whereas Gesenius is of opinion that it means a coffer or small box, to which, from its analogous use, the same name was applied. See ARK.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

The name given in the Authorized Version to the receptacle (;; ) which the Philistines placed beside the ark when they sent it home, and in which they deposited the golden mice and emerods that formed their trespass-offering. It is supposed to be the same, or nearly the same thing, as the Arabian rijaza, which is a kind of wallet, into which stones are put: it is hung to one of the two sides of the haudaj [a litter borne by a camel or mule] when it inclines towards the other.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kof´ẽr ( ארגּז , 'argāz ): A small box such as that in which the Philistines placed their golden mice and other offerings in returning the Ark ( 1 Samuel 6:8 ,  1 Samuel 6:11 ,  1 Samuel 6:15 ).