Reference: Dreams
Hastings
Sleep impressed primitive savages as a great mystery; and they consequently attributed a peculiar significance to the dreams of sleepers, as phenomena which they could not control by their will or explain by their reason. In the lowest stage of culture all dreams were regarded as objectively real experiences; the god or spirit actually visited the dreamer, the events dreamed actually occurred. Hence any one who was subject to frequent dreaming was looked on as a special medium of Divine energy, and many sought to produce the state by artificial means, e.g. fasting or the use of drugs. In process of time dreams came to be treated rather as Divine warnings than as actual occurrences. Such admonitions could be deliberately sought, e.g. by sleeping in a sacred spot, such as the temples of Asklepios or Serapis or the grotto of Trophonius; or they could come unsought, when the gods wished either to reveal or to deceive. (Plato, however, while allowing that the gods may send dreams, denies that they can wish to deceive men). Thus, for instance, among the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Arabs, the Egyptians, a profound importance was attached to dreams; there were professional interpreters of them (cf. Ge 40:5,8; 41:1; Da 2:5), and manuals were compiled to aid the work of elucidation (cf. the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus of Ephesus). Wiser theorists might discriminate between dreams, but popular superstition tended to regard them all as omens, to be explained, as far as possible, in accordance with definite rules.
1. Among the Jews.
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God appeared to the king in a dream and said: You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it. Jehovah was standing above the stairway. He proclaimed: I am Jehovah, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants. read more. Your descendants will be like the dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. Every family on earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants. Remember, I am with you. I will watch over you wherever you go. I will also bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I do what I have promised you. Jacob woke up from his sleep and said: Truly, Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it! He was filled with reverence. He said: This is an awesome place! Certainly, this is the house of God and the gateway to the heavens! Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had under his head. He set it up as a marker and poured oil on top of it. He named that place Bethel (House of God). Previously, the name of the city was Luz.
Once, when the flocks were mating, I dreamed that all the rams were either spotted or speckled.
Joseph had another dream and told his brothers: I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.
both prisoners, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, had dreams one night. Each man had a dream with its own special meaning.
We both had dreams, they answered him, but there is no one to tell us what they mean. Is it not God who can tell what dreams mean? Joseph asked them. Tell me all about them.
We both had dreams, they answered him, but there is no one to tell us what they mean. Is it not God who can tell what dreams mean? Joseph asked them. Tell me all about them.
Two years later Pharaoh had a dream. He dreamed he was standing by the Nile River.
Joseph said to Pharaoh: Pharaoh had the same dream twice. God has told Pharaoh what he is going to do.
He said: Listen to my words: 'When there are prophets of Jehovah among you, I make myself known to them in visions or speak to them in dreams. But this is not the way I treat my servant Moses. He is the most faithful person in my household. read more. I speak with him face to face. I speak plainly and not in riddles. He even sees the form of Jehovah. Why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?'
Do not sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars. Do not let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells or charms. Do not allow them to consult the spirits of the dead.
When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying: I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.
Samuel said to Saul: Why have you disturbed me? Why did you make me come back? Saul answered: I am in great trouble! The Philistines are at war with me. God has abandoned me. He does not answer me any more by prophets or by dreams. Please tell me what to do.
That night Jehovah appeared to him in a dream and asked him: What do you want me to give you?
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds,
There is futility and emptiness in many dreams and in many words. Reverence God.
I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name. They say: 'I had a dream! I had a dream!
The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream. The prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is chaff compared with wheat? Says Jehovah.
Listen to what I, Jehovah, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go. They are of no help at all to the people. I Jehovah have spoken!
Do not listen to prophets, mediums, and interpreters of dreams, fortunetellers, or sorcerers who tell you, 'You will never serve the king of Babylon.'
This is what Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'Do not let the prophets or the mediums among you trick you. Do not even listen to your own dreams.
The king answered: I have decided. If you do not make the dream known to me and it's interpretation you will be cut in pieces, and your houses will be made a dunghill (foul smelling pile of rubbish).
There is a God in heaven that reveals secrets. He made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in days to come. Your dream and visions are these:
Daniel had a dream and visions. He wrote the summery of the dream that came to his mind while he was in bed. It was the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon.
For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie. They have told false dreams! They comfort in vain. They go their way like sheep. They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.
Joseph had this in mind when God's angel appeared to him in a dream. The angel said to him: Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She is pregnant by Holy Spirit.
When they left, the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: Herod is looking to kill the young child. Arise, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you to leave.
The angel told him: Take the child and his mother and go to Israel. Those who tried to kill the child are dead.
The following night the Lord stood by him and said: Be of good courage, Paul, for just as you testified about me in Jerusalem, so you also must bear witness at Rome.
Last night an angel of the God of whom I serve stood beside me.
Morish
Though associated in some passages with trifles and vanities, Job 7:14; Ec 5:7, there is yet abundant evidence in the scriptures that God often conveyed His mind to people by means of dreams, and this not only to those who obeyed Him, but also to the heathen. Ge 20:3,6; Jg 7:13. "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man." Job 33:14-17. God said that He would instruct His prophets in dreams. Nu 12:6. He also used dreams in the case of Nebuchadnezzar and of Daniel in order to reveal His will and purpose concerning, the future.
Joseph, the reputed father of the Lord, was directed several times by means of dreams; and Pilate was warned by his wife to have nothing to do with that just man because of what she had suffered in a dream. Mt 1:20; 2:12-22; 27:19. It is to be remarked that in the last days when God pours out His Spirit on all flesh the sons and daughters will prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams. Joe 2:28; Ac 2:17. This will be the way that God will make known His mind in those days.
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God appeared to the king in a dream and said: You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.
God said to him in a dream: Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
He said: Listen to my words: 'When there are prophets of Jehovah among you, I make myself known to them in visions or speak to them in dreams.
When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying: I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.
you shatter me with dreams. You terrify me with visions.'
God does speak, now one-way and then another, though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, read more. he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, that turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride.
There is futility and emptiness in many dreams and in many words. Reverence God.
In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions! (Ac 2:17; Isa 44:3)
Joseph had this in mind when God's angel appeared to him in a dream. The angel said to him: Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She is pregnant by Holy Spirit.
God warned the astrologers in a dream not to go back to Herod. So they departed for their country by a different road. When they left, the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: Herod is looking to kill the young child. Arise, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you to leave. read more. Joseph took the child and his mother to Egypt. They did not return until the death of Herod. The words spoken by Jehovah through the prophet were fulfilled: I called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1) Herod saw that the astrologers tricked him and he was furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the time he learned from the astrologers. Jeremiah's prophecy came true: A sound was heard in Ramah, the sound of crying in bitter grief. Rachel is weeping for her children. She would not be comforted, because they were dead. After Herod died God's angel appeared in a dream to Joseph who was in Egypt. The angel told him: Take the child and his mother and go to Israel. Those who tried to kill the child are dead. Joseph took the child and his mother to Israel. When he heard that Archelaus succeeded his father, Herod, as king of Judea, Joseph feared going. Warned in a dream, he left for Galilee instead.
While he was seated in judgment his wife sent a message to him. She said, Do not judge that righteous man. I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him.
It will come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh. (Greek: apo, from) Your sons and your daughters will prophesy (proclaim God's Word). Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
Smith
Dreams.
The Scripture declares that the influence of the Spirit of God upon the soul extends to its sleeping as well as its waking thoughts. But, in accordance with the principle enunciated by St. Paul in
dreams, in which the understanding is asleep, are placed below the visions of prophecy, in which the understanding plays its part. Under the Christian dispensation, while we read frequently of trances and vision, dreams are never referred to as vehicles of divine revelation. In exact accordance with this principle are the actual records of the dreams sent by God. The greater number of such dreams were granted, for prediction or for warning, to those who were aliens to the Jewish covenant. And where dreams are recorded as means of God's revelation to his chosen servants, they are almost always referred to the periods of their earliest and most imperfect knowledge of him. Among the Jews, "if any person dreamed a dream which was peculiarly striking and significant, he was permitted to go to the high priest in a peculiar way, and see if it had any special import. But the observance of ordinary dreams and the consulting of those who pretend to skill in their interpretation are repeatedly forbidden.
De 13:1-5; 18:9-14
Schaff.
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If a prophet or an interpreter of dreams appears among you and gives you a sign or a wonder (portent) (omen) (forecast of the future), in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before, and even if what they promise comes true, read more. do not listen to them. Jehovah your God is allowing them to test you. He will then know that you love Jehovah with all your heart. Follow Jehovah and respect him. Obey him and keep his commandments. Worship him and be faithful to him (stick to him) (stay close to him) (cleave, cling to him). Put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against Jehovah. For he (Jehovah) rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that Jehovah has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to get rid of this evil.
When you come into the land that Jehovah your God gives you, do not follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there. Do not sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars. Do not let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells or charms. read more. Do not allow them to consult the spirits of the dead. Jehovah your God hates people who do these disgusting things. That is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance. Be perfect (without blemish) with Jehovah your God. These nations whom you shall possess listened to observers of clouds and to diviners. As for you, Jehovah your God has not allowed you to do so.
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding (Greek: nous: mind) also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding (mind) also.
Watsons
DREAMS. The easterns, in particular the Jews, greatly regarded dreams, and applied for their interpretation to those who undertook to explain them. The ancient Greeks and Romans had the same opinion of them, as appears from their most eminent writers. We see the antiquity of this attention to dreams in the history of Pharaoh's butler and baker, Genesis 40. Pharaoh himself, and Nebuchadnezzar, are instances. God expressly condemned to death all who pretended to have prophetic dreams, and to foretel futurities, even though what they foretold came to pass, if they had any tendency to promote idolatry, De 13:1-3. But the people were not forbidden, when they thought they had a significative dream, to address the prophets of the Lord, or the high priest in his ephod, to have it explained. Saul, before the battle of Gilboa, consulted a woman who had a familiar spirit, "because the Lord would not answer him by dreams, nor by prophets," 1Sa 28:6-7. The Lord himself sometimes discovered his will in dreams, and enabled persons to explain them. He informed Abimelech in a dream, that Sarah was the wife of Abraham, Ge 20:3,6. He showed Jacob the mysterious ladder in a dream, Ge 28:12-13; and in a dream an angel suggested to him a means of multiplying his flocks, Ge 31:11-12, &c. Joseph was favoured very early with prophetic dreams, whose signification was easily discovered by Jacob, Ge 37:5. God said, that he spake to other prophets in dreams, but to Moses face to face. The Midianites gave credit to dreams, as appears from that which a Midianite related to his companion; and from whose interpretation Gideon took a happy omen, Jg 7:13,15. The Prophet Jeremiah exclaims against impostors who pretended to have had dreams, and abused the credulity of the people: "They prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him tell it faithfully, saith the Lord," Jer 23:25,28-29. The Prophet Joel promises from God, that in the reign of the Messiah, the effusion of the Holy Spirit should be so copious, that the old men should have prophetic dreams, and the young men should receive visions, Joe 2:28.
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God appeared to the king in a dream and said: You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.
God said to him in a dream: Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it. Jehovah was standing above the stairway. He proclaimed: I am Jehovah, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants.
Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob.' I said, here I am. He said, 'Look up and see, now (please), that all the male goats that are mating are striped, speckled, or spotted, because I have seen everything that Laban is doing to you.
One time Joseph had a dream. He told his brothers about it and they hated him even more.
If a prophet or an interpreter of dreams appears among you and gives you a sign or a wonder (portent) (omen) (forecast of the future), in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before, and even if what they promise comes true, read more. do not listen to them. Jehovah your God is allowing them to test you. He will then know that you love Jehovah with all your heart.
When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying: I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel, and called out: Arise! Jehovah has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
So he asked Jehovah what to do. But Jehovah did not answer him. He did not answer by dreams or by the use of Urim and Thummim or by prophets. Saul ordered his officials: Find me a woman who is a medium. I will go and consult her. There is one in Endor, they answered.
I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name. They say: 'I had a dream! I had a dream!
The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream. The prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is chaff compared with wheat? Says Jehovah. My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.
In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions! (Ac 2:17; Isa 44:3)