Bible Dictionary
SLEEP, DEEP
Deep sleep may describe ordinary heavy sleep, but in several Old Testament passages it refers to a divinely caused trance or supernatural sleep. Scripture also uses the idea figuratively for spiritual or moral torpor.
Definition
Deep sleep may mean ordinary heavy sleep, but in several Old Testament passages it denotes a divinely caused sleep or trance. It can also describe figurative torpor, while the New Testament uses a separate expression for heavy natural sleep.
Biblical Usage
Divinely caused deep sleep or trance appears in accounts involving Adam, Abraham, Saul, Job’s visions, and Daniel. Figuratively, deep sleep describes moral or spiritual torpor.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>(tardemah, verb radham, from a root meaning "to be deaf"): The verb radham has no further meaning than "to be fast asleep" (Jud 4:21; Jon 1:5), but the King James Version used "deep sleep" as a translation only in Da 8:18; 10:9, where a sleep supernaturally caused (a "trance") is meant compare "dead sleep" in Ps 76:6). The Revised Version's insertion of deep sleep in place of The King James Version's "fast asleep" in Jud 4:21 is consequently unfortunate. The noun tardemah has the same meaning of "trance" in Ge 2:21; 15:12; 1Sa 26:12; Job 4:13; 33:15, but in Pr 19:15; Isa 29:10, it is used figuratively of torpor. In Ac 20:9 (huipnos bathtus), heavy natural sleep is meant.</p><p>Burton Scott Easton</p>