Jeremiah 23:28

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

Jeremiah 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ³  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁴  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁷  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ⁸  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Genesis 37:5

37:5 Joseph ⁹  had a dream, ¹⁰  and when he told his brothers about it, ¹¹  they hated him even more. ¹² 

Genesis 37:9

37:9 Then he had another dream, ¹³  and told it to his brothers. “Look,” ¹⁴  he said. “I had another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Numbers 12:6

12:6 The Lord ¹⁵  said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, ¹⁶  I the Lord ¹⁷  will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream.

Joel 2:28

An Outpouring of the Spirit

2:28 (3:1) ¹⁸  After all of this ¹⁹ 

I will pour out my Spirit ²⁰  on all kinds of people. ²¹ 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; ²² 

your young men will see prophetic visions.

Matthew 1:20

1:20 When he had contemplated this, an ²³  angel of the Lord ²⁴  appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

[23:28]  ¹ tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.

[23:32]  ⁵ sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.

[23:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  ⁸ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[37:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “dreamed a dream.”

[37:5]  ¹¹ sn Some interpreters see Joseph as gloating over his brothers, but the text simply says he told his brothers about it (i.e., the dream). The text gives no warrant for interpreting his manner as arrogant or condescending. It seems normal that he would share a dream with the family.

[37:5]  ¹² tn The construction uses a hendiadys, “they added to hate,” meaning they hated him even more.

[37:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “And he dreamed yet another dream.”

[37:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Look.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse have been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons. Both clauses of the dream report begin with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), which lends vividness to the report.

[12:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he.”

[12:6]  ¹⁶ tn The form of this construction is rare: נְבִיאֲכֶם (nÿvi’akhem) would normally be rendered “your prophet.” The singular noun is suffixed with a plural pronominal suffix. Some commentators think the MT has condensed “a prophet” with “to you.”

[12:6]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew syntax is difficult here. “The Lord” is separated from the verb by two intervening prepositional phrases. Some scholars conclude that this word belongs with the verb at the beginning of v. 6 (“And the Lord spoke”).

[2:28]  ¹⁸ sn Beginning with 2:28, the verse numbers through 3:21 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 2:28 ET = 3:1 HT, 2:29 ET = 3:2 HT, 2:30 ET = 3:3 HT, 2:31 ET = 3:4 HT, 2:32 ET = 3:5 HT, 3:1 ET = 4:1 HT, etc., through 3:21 ET = 4:21 HT. Thus Joel in the Hebrew Bible has 4 chapters, the 5 verses of ch. 3 being included at the end of ch. 2 in the English Bible.

[2:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Now it will be after this.”

[2:28]  ²⁰ sn This passage plays a key role in the apostolic explanation of the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2:17-21. Peter introduces his quotation of this passage with “this is that spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16; cf. the similar pesher formula used at Qumran). The New Testament experience at Pentecost is thus seen in some sense as a fulfillment of this Old Testament passage, even though that experience did not exhaustively fulfill Joel’s words. Some portions of Joel’s prophecy have no precise counterpart in that experience. For example, there is nothing in the experience recorded in Acts 2 that exactly corresponds to the earthly and heavenly signs described in Joel 3:3-4. But inasmuch as the messianic age had already begun and the “last days” had already commenced with the coming of the Messiah (cf. Heb 1:1-2), Peter was able to point to Joel 3:1-5 as a text that was relevant to the advent of Jesus and the bestowal of the Spirit. The equative language that Peter employs (“this is that”) stresses an incipient fulfillment of the Joel passage without precluding or minimizing a yet future and more exhaustive fulfillment in events associated with the return of Christ.

[2:28]  ²¹ tn Heb “all flesh.” As a term for humanity, “flesh” suggests the weakness and fragility of human beings as opposed to God who is “spirit.” The word “all” refers not to all human beings without exception (cf. NAB, NASB “all mankind”; NLT “all people”), but to all classes of human beings without distinction (cf. NCV).

[2:28]  ²² tn Heb “your old men will dream dreams.”

[1:20]  ²³ tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[1:20]  ²⁴ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” Linguistically, “angel of the Lord” is the same in both testaments (and thus, he is either “an angel of the Lord” or “the angel of the Lord” in both testaments). For arguments and implications, see ExSyn 252; M. J. Davidson, “Angels,” DJG, 9; W. G. MacDonald argues for “an angel” in both testaments: “Christology and ‘The Angel of the Lord’,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, 324-35.