to lie down (for rest · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
afraid
תִפְחָ֑דtif.Chad
H6342
to be startled (by a sudden alarm) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
down
וְ֝שָׁכַבְתָּ֗ve.sha.khav.ta
H7901
to lie down (for rest · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
sleep
שְׁנָתֶֽךָshe.na.Te.kha
H8142
sleep · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
sweet
וְֽעָרְבָ֥הve.'a.re.Vah
H6149
to be agreeable · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
Psalms 3:5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.
Proverbs 6:22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
Job 11:19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
Psalms 121:4-7 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
Jeremiah 31:26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
Leviticus 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neithe…
Psalms 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 3:21-26
Solomon, having pronounced those happy who not only lay hold on wisdom, but retain her, here exhorts us therefore to retain her, assuring us that we ourselves shall have the comfort of doing so.
I. The exhortation is, to have religion's rules always in view and always at heart, Pro 3:21. 1. To have them always in view: "My son, let them not depart from thy eyes; let not thy eyes ever depart from them to wander after vanity. Have them always in mind, and do not forget them; be ever and anon thinking of them, and conversing with them, and never imagine that thou hast looked upon them long enough and that it is time now to lay them by; but, as long as thou livest, keep up and cultivate thy acqu…
assign reasons in their value for happiness and ornament, guidance and support in dangers, both when waking and sleeping.
John Gill on Proverbs 3:24
When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid,.... That is, when thou liest down on thy bed at night in order to take sleep, having committed thyself into the hands of a faithful Creator and covenant God and Father, and of Christ the Redeemer and Wisdom of God; thou shalt not be afraid of thieves breaking in to hurt thy person or rob thee of thy property, or of fire to consume thy dwelling and substance, and of nocturnal apparitions and diabolical spectres deceiving thy sight and disturbing thy mind: or when thou art "asleep" (e), for so the word also signifies; thou shall not be surprised out of it with any of the above things, or terrified in it with uneasy imaginations, anxious cares, and…
But more than this, wisdom makes its possessor in all situations of life confident in God:
23 Then shalt thou go thy way with confidence,
And thy foot shall not stumble.
24 When thou liest down, thou are not afraid,
But thou layest thyself down and hast sweet sleep.
25 Thou needest not be afraid of sudden alarm,
Nor for the storm of the wicked when it breaketh forth.
26 For Jahve will be thy confidence
And keep thy foot from the snare.
The לבטח (cf. our "bei guter Laune" = in good cheer), with ל of the condition, is of the same meaning as the conditional adverbial accusative בּטח, Pro 10:9; Pro 1:33. Pro 3:23 the lxx translate ὁ δὲ πούς σου οὐ μὴ προσκόψῃ, while, on the contrary, at P…
The Church Fathers
"If you lie down, you will not be afraid," etc. It is clear according to the letter, since he who remembers to live innocently and justly before God, sleeps securely, wakes securely, rests and walks securely. But also, when the just man sleeps in death, he not only does not fear the powers of evil spirits, but also rests in peace and safely awaits the day of resurrection, because he has God everywhere as his protector and keeper. This is like in the Psalm: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (Psalm 22).
There is a sleep which the disciples are commanded to sleep with rest, according to Christ's command, differing greatly from a sleeping against his will; so that the order might be preserved: that first indeed we should watch, praying that we may not enter into temptation, and afterward that we should sleep and rest according to Christ's command. Which sleep Solomon too sets down in a promise to those who live well, saying in his Proverbs: "for if you sit down, you will be without fear; but if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly, and you will not fear a terror that comes upon you nor the assaults of the impious rushing in". And David, knowing the diverse watchings and sleepings, "swore to the Lord and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob": not to go up onto the couch of his bed nor to give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, and to do this for so long, until he should find "a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob", so that when he has found a place for the Lord, he may go up onto the couch of his bed and give sleep to his eyes as they renew themselves and, after rest, prepare themselves for a new and more divine rising up, according to what is wont to happen to bodily men after natural and healthy sleep. But perhaps also the soul, not being able always to bear labors inasmuch as it is created and incarnate and not sufficient to preserve the good without interruption, will obtain relaxations without any blame, which morally are called sleeps and slumbers, so that, having relaxation up to some little space of time, it may rise renewed and be raised again.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Faith · ENJOINE — ENJOINE
Peace · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Protection · Is vouchsafed to saints in: Sleep — Is vouchsafed to saints in: Sleep
Wisdom · .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Young Men · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
