SLEEP (Nouns: שֵׁנָה, H9104; ὑπνός; Verbs: יָשֵׁנ֒, H3822, שָׁכַב, H8886; καθεύδω, G2761). This word is used in three distinct ways in the Bible—in reference to natural sleep, spiritual indolence, and the preresurrection state of death.

There is nothing unusual about most uses of the word in its physical sense. After Jacob dreamed about the ladder he simply woke from his sleep (Gen 28:16); when Eutychus fell down during Paul’s long sermon it was due to a typical human loss of concentration in weariness (Acts 20:9). In one or two cases natural sleep was, for supernatural reasons, deepened. This is recorded in the account of the creation of Eve (Gen 2:21, 22). The men around Saul were in such a deepened sleep while David and Abishai took the spear and jar of water from his head (1 Sam 26:12).

Solomon was very scathing when talking about those who were lazy. He promised poverty as the fruit of those who “fold their hands in rest” (see Prov 6:9; 24:33, 34).

Christ, in talking to His followers about the Second Coming, exhorted them to be faithful and watchful “lest he come suddenly and find you asleep” (Mark 13:36). Paul in exhorting Christians in everyday living and in warning them of the enormity of their task, stressed that “it is full time now for you to wake from sleep” (Rom 13:11). The same writer, in speaking of the light coming into the lives of believers, likened this process to an arousing from deep sleep (Eph 5:14).

Where sleep is used to indicate physical death, the picture is of a temporary state pending a final consummation. Paul discusses this in 1 Corinthians 15. It is clear that this reference to death as sleep is fig., and does not refer to sleep of the soul because of such passages as Luke 16:24; 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Revelation 6:9, 10.