Genesis 15:12

15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, ¹  and great terror overwhelmed him. ² 

Genesis 15:1

The Cutting of the Covenant

15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield ³  and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” ⁴ 

Genesis 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ⁵  because the Lord blessed him. ⁶ 

Job 4:13

4:13 In the troubling thoughts ⁷  of the dreams ⁸  in the night

when a deep sleep ⁹  falls on men,

Job 33:15

33:15 In a dream, a night vision,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they sleep in their beds.

Proverbs 19:15

19:15 Laziness brings on ¹⁰  a deep sleep, ¹¹ 

and the idle person ¹²  will go hungry. ¹³ 

Daniel 8:18

8:18 As he spoke with me, I fell into a trance with my face to the ground. But he touched me and stood me upright. ¹⁴ 

[15:12]  ¹ tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”

[15:12]  ² tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”

[15:1]  ³ sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.

[15:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).

[26:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ⁶ tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Here too the word is rare. The form שְׂעִפִּים (sÿ’ippim, “disquietings”) occurs only here and in 20:2. The form שַׂרְעַפִּים (sar’appim, “disquieting thoughts”), possibly related by dissimilation, occurs in Pss 94:19 and 139:23. There seems to be a connection with סְעִפִּים (sÿ’ippim) in 1 Kgs 18:21 with the meaning “divided opinion”; this is related to the idea of סְעִפָּה (sÿ’ippah, “bough”). H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 47) concludes that the point is that like branches the thoughts lead off into different and bewildering places. E. Dhorme (Job, 50) links the word to an Arabic root (“to be passionately smitten”) for the idea of “intimate thoughts.” The idea here and in Ps 139 has more to do with anxious, troubling, disquieting thoughts, as in a nightmare.

[4:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “visions” of the night.

[4:13]  ⁹ tn The word תַּרְדֵּמָה (tardemah) is a “deep sleep.” It is used in the creation account when the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam; and it is used in the story of Jonah when the prophet was asleep during the storm. The LXX interprets it to mean “fear,” rendering the whole verse “but terror falls upon men with dread and a sound in the night.”

[19:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “causes to fall” or “casts”; NAB “plunges…into.”

[19:15]  ¹¹ tn Or “complete inactivity”; the word תַּרְדֵּמָה (tardemah) can refer to a physical “deep sleep” (e.g., Gen 2:21; Jonah 1:5, 6); but it can also be used figuratively for complete inactivity, as other words for “sleep” can. Here it refers to lethargy or debility and morbidness.

[19:15]  ¹² tn The expression וְנֶפֶשׁ רְמִיָּה (vÿnefesh rÿmiyyah) can be translated “the soul of deceit” or “the soul of slackness.” There are two identical feminine nouns, one from the verb “beguile,” and the other from a cognate Arabic root “grow loose.” The second is more likely here in view of the parallelism (cf. NIV “a shiftless man”; NAB “the sluggard”). One who is slack, that is, idle, will go hungry.

[19:15]  ¹³ sn The two lines are related in a metonymical sense: “deep sleep” is the cause of going hungry, and “going hungry” is the effect of deep sleep.

[8:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on my standing.”