What Is a Litter?

(Song of Songs 3:7)

Answer: Let’s look back at the Scripture.

Song of Songs 3:7 (on’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel.”

The word “litter” here doesn’t refer to the modern stretchers used today for carrying the sick or injured. In ancient times, a litter or carriage was a special kind of portable seat or bed used to carry kings and queens over short distances.

As times changed, the use of such litters for transporting royalty disappeared. Today, rulers and dignitaries travel in cars and airplanes instead. The word litter (or stretcher) is now used mostly in medical settings to describe equipment designed to carry emergency patients. Modern stretchers, unlike those of old, have wheels and are not carried by hand.

However, the ancient litters that carried kings had one major weakness they were not very stable. If those carrying them stumbled, the person being carried could easily fall. Since people walk at different speeds and strengths, the ride was often uneven shaking, swaying, and unsteady. The one being carried was always at risk of falling.

In the same way, the world today can be compared to a king being carried on a shaky litter unstable, unsteady, and in constant motion.

Isaiah 24:19–21 (NIV):

19 The earth is broken up,
the earth is split asunder,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 The earth reels like a drunkard,
it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
that it falls never to rise again.
21 In that day the Lord will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below.

If the world itself is shaking and swaying, why should we put our trust in it? And why is it so unstable? Because its end is near. The world is filled with sin, and that sin is what causes it to tremble and decay.

For a deeper study, see: “The Earth Reels Like a Drunkard and Sways Like a Litter.”

Have you received Jesus Christ into your life? Or are you swaying along with the world driven by pleasure, sin, and worldly desires? Now is the time to turn away from the world and its empty promises, and make the Lord Jesus Christ the foundation of your life.

May the Lord bless you.

Print this post