Inn. In the Bible the "inn" was not a hotel in our sense. The word so translated means either a "lodging-place for the night"—not necessarily a covered place, but a mere station of caravans, where water could be obtained; such was the "inn," R. V. "lodging-place," at which Joseph's brethren stopped, and where Moses was met by the Lord, Genesis 42:27; Exodus 4:24—or else a khan or caravanserai, which was, and is, a large square building enclosing an open court, in whose centre is a fountain; the building contains a number of rooms. There is no provision for meals or feed for the animals; the travellers carry such necessaries with them. These caravanserais are often built by benevolent persons. Jeremiah 9:2. Another kind of "inn" is that mentioned in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:34. This had a host, who was probably paid to attend to the wants of travellers. And it was in one of the stables of a mere caravanserai provided for the horses of travellers that our Lord was born. In modern Syria, in villages where there is no khan, there is a house for the entertainment of travellers, with a man appointed to look after it: for its accommodations, meagre as they are, payment is exacted, and the keeper likewise gets a fee.
With more than 1,500 subjects and proper names defined and analyzed, this dictionary, authored by Dr. Edwin Rice, will provide unique insites into the Bible as it has since its introduction in 1893Wikipedia
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