Dictionary of Bible Themes  »  5000 Humanity  »  5200 Human civilisation  »  5532 sleep  »  5535 sleep, and death

Scripture often uses sleep as an image of death, indicating that believers will be awakened to resurrection on the last day.

Death described in the imagery of sleep

The sleep of death for human beings in general

Psalm 90:3-6 See also Job 7:21; Job 14:10-12; Psalm 13:3; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 9:24 pp Mark 5:39 pp Luke 8:52-53

Death as resting with the ancestors

1 Kings 2:10 See also Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 11:43 Solomon; 1 Kings 14:20,31; Kings 16:6; Kings 22:50 Jehoshaphat; 2 Kings 14:16; Kings 15:7; Kings 16:20; Kings 20:21 Hezekiah; 2 Kings 21:18 Manasseh

Those who fall asleep in Christ

Revelation 14:13 See also John 11:11-14; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 15:6,17-19

Death is not the end of existence

John 5:28-29 See also Job 14:13-15; Psalm 17:15; Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:3; Luke 16:22-23; 1 Corinthians 15:20,51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Sleep denoting the finality of judgment for the lost

Jeremiah 51:57 See also Psalm 7:3-5; Psalm 76:5; Jeremiah 51:39

See also

5482  punishment
6644  eternal life
9020  death
9210  judgment, God's
9240  last judgment
9310  resurrection
9410  heaven
9510  hell