Job 33:12-20
12 "Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you.
God is greater than man.
13 Why do you contend against him,
saying, `He will answer none of my words'?
14 For God speaks in one way,
and in two, though man does not perceive it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep[1] falls upon men,
while they slumber on their beds,
16 then he opens the ears of men,
and terrifies them with warnings,
17 that he may turn man aside from his deed,
and cut off pride from man;
18 he keeps back his soul from the Pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
19 "Man is also chastened with pain upon his bed,
and with continual strife in his bones;
20 so that his life loathes bread,
and his appetite dainty food.
Elihu explains how God communicates in dreams, visions, and "deep sleep"
Elihu's description of Tardemah ("deep sleep") , and how God communicates by it, sheds light on Abram's tardemah with a "horror of great darkness," and on Adam's as described in Genesis 2:21-22. What we learn of "tardemah" visions in various places in the Bible guides us away from a too literal reading of the Genesis text regarding what happened to Adam and what he saw in his "deep sleep".
