2 Samuel 3:31. Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier.
Natal, “bier,” would be better rendered by bed. Persons of distinction were sometimes carried to the grave on their beds. Josephus describes minutely the preparations which were made by Archelaus for the funeral of his father Herod. The body was placed on a gilded bed, which was richly adorned with precious stones (Antiquities, book 17, chap. 8, ยง 3).