Genesis 15:12

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.

Genesis 15:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 15:12

And when the sun was going down
Just setting, descending below the hemisphere; or "about to enter" ^F13 into his chamber, as Piscator observes, from whence he went forth in the morning, as a strong man to run his race; which at sunset is finished according to human appearance, and the common apprehensions of men, who have thought it goes under the earth, or drops into the ocean, see ( Psalms 19:5 ) :

a deep sleep fell upon Abram:
through the great fatigue he had had the preceding day, in doing what is before related; or rather through a more than ordinary influence of God upon him, which bound up his senses, and cast him into an ecstasy or trance, when he had the following prophecy and vision, which more fully explained to him the emblem he had been conversant with; this was such a sleep as fell on Adam, ( Genesis 2:21 ) :

and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him;
or such darkness as was horrible and terrible, so it was represented to his mind in vision; which signified the great afflictions after expressed by darkness, that should come upon his children in Egypt and elsewhere: and so Jarchi says it refers to the distresses and darkness of their captivities in Egypt, and in other places. The Targumists observe, that Abram in this vision saw the four monarchies that should bring his children into bondage.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (awbl vmvh yhyw) "et fuit sol ad intrandum", Montanus, Piscator.

Genesis 15:12 In-Context

10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.

11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.

13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.