SLEEP, DEEP

(tardemah, verb radham, from a root meaning "to be deaf"): The verb radham has no further meaning than "to be fast asleep" (Judges 4:21; Jonah 1:5), but the King James Version used "deep sleep" as a translation only in Daniel 8:18; 10:9, where a sleep supernaturally caused (a "trance") is meant compare "dead sleep" in Psalms 76:6). The Revised Version's insertion of deep sleep in place of The King James Version's "fast asleep" in Judges 4:21 is consequently unfortunate. The noun tardemah has the same meaning of "trance" in Genesis 2:21; 15:12; 1 Samuel 26:12; Job 4:13; 33:15, but in Proverbs 19:15; Isaiah 29:10, it is used figuratively of torpor. In Acts 20:9 (huipnos bathtus), heavy natural sleep is meant.

Burton Scott Easton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.