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All KJV Words

Archaic KJV Word

Furniture

Modern equivalent: equipment

What Was Lost

Rachel hid stolen idols in the camel's furniture -- the saddlebags and packing gear loaded on the animal. Modern readers picture Rachel stuffing teraphim behind a sofa. The tabernacle's furniture was its sacred equipment: the ark, the lampstand, the altar -- functional worship instruments, not decoration.

Closest Survivor in Modern English

furnish (the verb 'to furnish' still means 'to equip/provide' beyond just furniture)

Peak Usage (1611)

KJV Genesis 31:34 -- 'Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture'; Exodus 31:7 -- 'The tabernacle and all the furniture thereof'

Died ~1800

Narrowed from 'equipment/fittings/provisions/gear' (French fourniture 'supplies') to 'household tables and chairs,' domesticating a word that once meant full outfitting for any purpose.

What Replaced It

equipment

Military/industrial; furniture-as-equipment covered personal gear, saddlebags, provisions

furnishings

Decorative; the original furniture was functional gear for travel, worship, or war

supplies

Consumable; furniture-as-gear meant durable equipment you carried and used

Related KJV Words