Genesis 15:12

Summary

The verse describes a temporal setting (the sun about to set) followed by two falling events: a tardemah ("deep sleep", H8639) falling upon Abram, and then a "great dark dread" falling upon him as well. The repetition of the same root for "falling" links both experiences into one continuous scene.

Key words

• yehi ("it was", H1961) — qal narrative form of "to be," introduces a temporal clause and signals a shift in the story's action.
• labo ("to go/enter", H0935G) — infinitive construct with the preposition la ("to/about to"), forming the idiomatic "about to set" construction with the preceding yehi.
• tardemah ("a deep sleep", H8639) — feminine singular noun denoting a heavy, unconscious state, distinct from ordinary sleep.
• naphelah ("it fell", H5307G) — qal perfect (completed action), feminine, agreeing with tardemah; marks the sleep as having already come upon Abram.
• nopelet ("was falling", H5307G) — qal participle (ongoing action) of the same root as naphelah; describes the dread as still in progress, unlike the completed sleep.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the construction yehi... labo ("it was... to go"), a common Biblical Hebrew idiom placing an infinitive after a form of "to be" to express an imminent or ongoing circumstance — here, "as the sun was about to set." This clause sets the temporal frame for what follows.

The main action is carried by two occurrences of the root nafal ("to fall", H5307G), first as the perfect naphelah ("it fell") describing the tardemah ("deep sleep") settling on Abram as a completed event, and then as the participle nopelet ("was falling") describing the eimah chashekhah gedolah ("a great dark dread", H0367, H2825, H1419A) as an ongoing process. The shift from perfect to participle marks a change in narrative pace: the sleep is stated as accomplished fact, while the dread is presented as unfolding, heightened by the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009), which shifts the perspective to what Abram perceives from within the sleep. The three feminine singular terms eimah, chashekhah, and gedolah stack together — "dread," "darkness," "great" — without a conjunction between them, intensifying the description as a single compound sensation rather than three separate things.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tardemah as ἔκστασις ("ecstasis", a trance-like state), differing from the Hebrew's more specific "deep sleep." The Vulgate uses sopor ("stupor/deep sleep"), closer to the Hebrew sense. For the second clause, the LXX gives φόβος σκοτινὸς μέγας ("great dark fear") and the Vulgate horror magnus et tenebrosus ("great and dark horror"), both preserving the three qualifiers found in the Hebrew eimah chashekhah gedolah, though the Hebrew's participle nopelet (an ongoing "falling") is rendered by both Greek and Latin with static or momentary verbs (ἐπιπίτει, invasit) rather than a continuous action.