chalom · dream

What it means

chalom (חֲלוֹם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “dream”.

What one sees while asleep. In the Bible, God sometimes speaks through dreams.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. What one sees asleep; God sometimes speaks this way.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Dream: what one sees while asleep. It is the noun of חָלַם (dream). In the Bible God sometimes speaks in dreams, but there are also false dreams of lying prophets.

• Elohim speaks in a dream Genesis 20:31 Kings 3:5Numbers 12:6
• Joseph's dreams Genesis 37:5Genesis 37:9
• Interpreting dreams Genesis 40:8Genesis 41:25Daniel 2:3
• Prophets who tell false dreams Deuteronomy 13:1Jeremiah 23:28Zechariah 10:2
• “Your old men will dream dreams” Joel 2:28

Historical and cultural background

Joseph said: “Do not interpretations belong to Elohim?” (Genesis 40:8). The law commanded not to listen to “that dreamer of dreams” who invited people to follow other gods, even if he gave a sign (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).

How we translate it

“Dream” 43 times and “dreams” 20. The Hebrew construction of dreaming a dream is kept (“A dream I have dreamed”, Daniel 2:3; “a dreamer of dreams”, Deuteronomy 13:1). The brothers call Joseph literally ‘master of dreams’, and it is translated “this dreamer” (Genesis 37:19).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• dream ×43
• dreams ×20
• dreamer ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×33
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×3
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×2
• Job×3
• Psalms×1
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×6
• Daniel×5
• Joel×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 20:3

  But Elohim came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Look, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband.”

• Genesis 20:6

  Then Elohim said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this; and I also kept back you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her.

• Genesis 31:10

  It happened at the time when the flock was in heat that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and look, the male goats that were mounting the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.

• Genesis 31:11

  Then the angel of Elohim said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob!’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’

• Genesis 31:24

  But Elohim came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.”

• Genesis 37:5

  Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more.

• Genesis 37:8

  His brothers said to him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed rule over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words.

• Genesis 37:9

  He dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream: look, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down before me.”

• Genesis 37:10

  He told it to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow down before you to the ground?”

• Genesis 37:19

  They said to one another, “Look, here comes this dreamer!

• Genesis 37:20

  Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, and we will say, ‘A fierce animal devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams.”

• Genesis 40:5

  And the two of them dreamed a dream, each his own dream, in one night, each according to the interpretation of his dream: the cupbearer and the baker who belonged to the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison.

• Genesis 40:8

  They said to him, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter for it.” Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to Elohim? Please tell them to me.”

• Genesis 40:9

  So the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream, look, a vine was before me,

• Genesis 40:16

  When the chief of the bakers saw that he had interpreted well, he said to Joseph, “In my dream I too saw, and look, three baskets of white bread were on my head.

• Genesis 41:7

  The thin ears swallowed the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, and look, it was a dream.

• Genesis 41:8

  In the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.

• Genesis 41:11

  We dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; each according to the interpretation of his dream we dreamed.

• Genesis 41:12

  A young man was there with us, a Hebrew, a slave of the chief of the guard. We told him, and he interpreted for us our dreams; to each according to his dream he interpreted.

• Genesis 41:15

  Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it; but I have heard it said about you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

• Genesis 41:17

  Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph: “In my dream, look, I was standing on the bank of the Nile;

• Genesis 41:22

  I saw in my dream, and look, seven ears coming up on one stalk, full and good.

• Genesis 41:25

  Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What Elohim is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.

• Genesis 41:26

  The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is one.

• Genesis 41:32

  As for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is fixed by Elohim, and Elohim is hurrying to do it.

• Genesis 42:9

  Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”

• Numbers 12:6

  And he said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, YHWH, make myself known to him in a vision; in a dream I speak with him.

• Deuteronomy 13:1

  If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

• Deuteronomy 13:3

  you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams, for YHWH your Elohim is testing you to know whether you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.

• Deuteronomy 13:5

  But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken turning aside against YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slaves, to drag you away from the way in which YHWH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

• Judges 7:13

  Gideon came, and there was a man recounting a dream to his companion. He said, “Look, I dreamed a dream: there was a round loaf of barley tumbling into the camp of Midian; it came to the tent and struck it, and it fell; it turned it upside down, and the tent fell flat.”

• Judges 7:15

  When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for YHWH has given into your hand the camp of Midian.”

• 1 Samuel 28:6

  Saul inquired of YHWH, but YHWH did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.

• 1 Samuel 28:15

  Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing up me?” Saul said, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are fighting against me, and Elohim has turned away from me and no longer answers me, either by the hand of the prophets or by dreams; so I have called you to make known to me what I should do.”

• 1 Kings 3:5

  At Gibeon YHWH appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and Elohim said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

• 1 Kings 3:15

  And Solomon woke up, and he saw that it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of Adonai, and offered burnt offerings and offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

• Job 7:14

  then you scare me with dreams and with visions you terrify me,

• Job 20:8

  Like a dream he will fly away, and they will not find him; and he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

• Job 33:15

  in a dream, a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbers on the bed,

• Psalms 73:20

  Like a dream on waking, Adonai, when you rouse yourself you will despise their image.

And 24 more times.