تبت

Core meaning

The coffer: a closed container in which one places what must be kept intact while it is carried from one place to another.

Uses

1. ٱلتَّابُوت → "the coffer" : the container that keeps what is placed in it: a tranquility and a remnant left by the clan of Moussa, or the child himself.

   • «أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ ٱلتَّابُوتُ فِيهِ سَكِينَةٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ» — "that the coffer comes to you, wherein is a tranquility from your Guardian" (2:248)
   • «أَنِ ٱقْذِفِيهِ فِى ٱلتَّابُوتِ فَٱقْذِفِيهِ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ» — "Hurl him into the coffer, then hurl him into the deep" (20:39)

Evidence from the text

Both uses show the same object by what it does: it keeps what is entrusted to it during a passage. In 2:248, the coffer contains "a tranquility from your Guardian, and a remnant of what the clan of Moussa and the clan of Harun left" (2:248); it comes to the people "carried by the Agents", as the sign of kingship. In 20:39, it receives the child before he is cast into the deep: the coffer shelters him from the water, and the account returns him to his mother (20:40).

In both cases the coffer is carried and its content arrives intact: the deposit of two clans up to the people, the child up to the clan of Fir'awn and then up to his mother.

See also

يمم (the deep) · سكن (tranquility) · حمل (to carry)