90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” 1
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;
20:8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, 2
and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.
29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.
There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,
those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.
29:8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,
only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty. 3
It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,
only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched. 4
So it will be for the horde from all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
1 tn Heb “you bring them to an end [with] sleep.” The Hebrew verb זָרַם (zaram) has traditionally been taken to mean “flood” or “overwhelm” (note the Polel form of a root זרם in Ps 77:17, where the verb is used of the clouds pouring down rain). However, the verb form here is Qal, not Polel, and is better understood as a homonym meaning “to make an end [of life].” The term שֵׁנָה (shenah, “sleep”) can be taken as an adverbial accusative; it is a euphemism here for death (see Ps 76:5-6).
2 tn Heb “and they do not find him.” The verb has no expressed subject, and so here is equivalent to a passive. The clause itself is taken adverbially in the sentence.
3 tn Or “that he [or “his appetite”] is unsatisfied.”
4 tn Or “that he is faint and that he [or “his appetite”] longs [for water].”