StrongerBible

tardemah

תַּרְדֵּמָה

HebrewH8639“deep sleep, trance, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:21Gen 15:121Sa 26:12Job 4:13Job 33:15Pro 19:15Isa 29:10
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradetar-day-MAHnoun

What tardemah means

a deep sleep that comes over a person from outside, sealing off the senses so that something is done to them while they lie helpless and unaware

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is not the ordinary sleep of a tired body. It is a heavy, overpowering sleep that falls on a person from outside, and in the Bible it almost always comes from God. The person it falls on goes completely passive: their senses are shut off, and they take no part in what happens next. The name itself may go back to an old word meaning to block or stop up, which fits a sleep that seals a person off.

Six of its seven appearances are caused directly by God, and they cluster at turning points in the story. God makes a deep sleep fall on the first man so the woman can be formed, on Abram so a covenant can be sealed, and on Saul's whole camp so David can walk through it untouched. In the book of Job it is the setting in which a vision comes at night. In each case the human is set aside so that God can act or reveal without their help, which is why the word carries far more weight than plain sleep.

Two passages bend the pattern rather than break it. In Isaiah, God pours out a deep sleep as judgment, dulling people's eyes and minds so they cannot see or understand. In Proverbs, the same heavy sleep is what laziness brings on, a hollow echo of the God-sent sleep that leaves the sluggard with nothing but hunger. Both of these depend on the reader already knowing that this sleep normally falls from God.

Nuances

1aa God-given deep sleep that sets a person aside so a decisive act is carried out on them while they take no part in it
Gen 2:21Gen 15:121Sa 26:12
Gen 2:21

Whether the deep sleep of Genesis 2:21 is functional unconsciousness (God simply puts the man under so the woman can be formed without his participation) or a visionary trance in which he receives revelation.

  • majorityFunctional unconsciousness: a narrative device shielding the woman's formation from human cooperation, not a vision.; C. Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (Continental); G. J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (WBC), p. 69; K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26 (NAC)
  • minorityA visionary trance in which the man beholds prophetic mystery, weighted by the Septuagint's choice of the word for ecstasy.; J. H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, pp. 77-81; B. K. Waltke, Genesis, pp. 89-90; Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 9.19
1ba God-given deep sleep as the doorway to revelation: the state in which a vision or message is received, most often at night
Gen 15:12Job 4:13Job 33:15
1ca deep sleep or numbness poured out as judgment, closing people's eyes and dulling their minds so they cannot perceive
Isa 29:10
1dthe heavy sleep that laziness brings on: the sluggard's stupor, an echo of the God-sent deep sleep that yields only hunger
Pro 19:15

What scholars say about tardemah

The standard lexica agree that the noun denotes far more than ordinary sleep. BDB glosses it "deep sleep, usually by supernatural agency," HALOT "drugged sleep, stupor, lethargy," DCH "deep sleep, trance, stupor," and Gesenius "torpor, stupefaction"; TWOT §2123 (Harris, Archer, Waltke) states that the noun "always carries the connotation of a divinely-imposed condition," a distinction from its verbal cognate radam (H7290), which tolerates ordinary heavy sleep (Judg 4:21; Jonah 1:5-6). Morphologically it is a taqtil abstract-state feminine, framing the root as the imposed condition rather than the act. Syntactically it is consistently the subject of napal "to fall upon" with YHWH as agent (Gen 2:21; 15:12; 1 Sam 26:12; Job 4:13; 33:15), and the object of nasak "to pour out" in the judicial inversion at Isa 29:10. The most secure cognate is Arabic radama "to block, stop up" (Lane; Klein), giving a semantic path from "stop up the senses" to "stupefied sleep"; the Akkadian radamu "to cover, enshroud" surfaces in the pairing with kisah "cover" at Isa 29:10. The Septuagint reads the term as an extraordinary state throughout, choosing ekstasis (trance) at both Genesis passages, thambos (numinous astonishment) at 1 Sam 26:12, and katanyxis (stupor) at Isa 29:10; Philo (Quis Heres 249-266) classifies Gen 15:12 as prophetic ecstasy, and the ekstasis rendering feeds Acts 10:10; 11:5; 22:17 and, via Isa 29:10, Paul's hardening citation at Rom 11:8. Commentators who treat the term as visionary or near-technical include Hamilton (NICOT, "virtually a technical term"), Walton, Bruce Waltke, Husser, Gnuse, and Noegel; those who read it more broadly as a literary-theological marker whose force varies by context include Wenham, Westermann, Mathews, and Fabry (TDOT). The ancient Near Eastern background (Enuma Elish I 60-69; Gilgamesh SB XI 211; the incubation corpus surveyed by Oppenheim, Butler, and Zgoll) supplies the motif of divinely-imposed sleep, which Israel redirects from sleeping gods onto the passive human recipient.

Where scholars disagree about tardemah

Whether tardemah is a strict technical term for a divinely-imposed, revelation-receiving state of consciousness, or a broader literary-theological marker whose precise force varies with context.

  • majorityA literary-theological marker of an extraordinary, usually God-sent sleep whose exact meaning depends on context; not a fixed technical term.; G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC); C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Continental); H.-J. Fabry, TDOT, s.v. רדם
  • minorityEffectively a technical term for the divinely-imposed condition in which revelation is received.; V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis (NICOT); J. H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve; J.-M. Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. תַּרְדֵּמָה (p. 922)lexicon
  • HALOT, vol. IV, s.v. תַּרְדֵּמָהlexicon
  • DCH (Clines), vol. 7, s.v. תַּרְדֵּמָהlexicon
  • TWOT §2123 (Harris, Archer, Waltke)theological dictionary
  • NIDOTTE (VanGemeren, ed.), s.v. רדםtheological dictionary
  • V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis 1-17 (NICOT), pp. 178-80, 433commentary
  • G. J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 and 16-50 (WBC)commentary
  • C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Continental), pp. 226-31commentary
  • J. H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve, pp. 77-81monograph
  • D. J. A. Clines, Job 1-20 and 21-37 (WBC 17, 18B)commentary
  • J. N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah 1-39 (NICOT), pp. 528-29commentary
  • J.-M. Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Sheffield, 1999)monograph
  • J. W. Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis (SBLSCS 35, 1993), ad Gen 2:21monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of תַּרְדֵּמָה

f s absolute

תַּרְדֵּמָה

Gen 2:21, Gen 15:12, Job 4:13, Job 33:15, Pro 19:15, Isa 29:10

f s construct

תַּרְדֵּמַת

1Sa 26:12