Manger

('ebhuc): "Crib" translates the Hebrew word [~'ebhuc] exactly, as it denotes "a barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and foldyards; also in fields, for beasts lying out in the winter." The Hebrew is from a word meaning to feed ('abhac), and is used in the precise sense of the English word in Job 39:9 of the "crib" of the wild ox, in Prov 14:4, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean," and in Isa 1:3, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib." section 23.

man'-jer (phatne): Properly the place in a stall or stable where the food of cattle is placed (in the Old Testament "crib" (Job 39:9; Prov 14:4; Isa 1:3)); thus also, apparently, in the narrative of the nativity in Luke 2:7; Luke 2:12; Luke 2:16. In Septuagint, the Greek word, representing different Hebrew words, has also the extended meaning of "stall" (2 Chr 32:28; Hab 3:17); thus also in Luke 13:15, where the Revised Version margin has "manger." Old tradition says that Jesus was born in a cave in the neighborhood of Bethlehem; even so, a place for food for cattle may have been cut in the side of the rock.

James Orr