Sometimes in the Bible, God communicates to people in dreams. Some of them are symbolic (like the dreams in Daniel), and some involve explicit instructions from God.
Dreams fascinate me, and I figure they’re interesting to you, too. Since God has revealed some of His word through dreams, I thought it might be cool to find all the dreams in the Bible.
So, I Bible-geeked out and made this for you.
1. Abimelech’s warning
(Genesis 20)
Long before the nation of Israel settled between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, their ancestor Abraham sojourned throughout the territory with his wife Sarah. Abraham was a rich guy (and therefore a pretty big deal), so it’s not like he and Sarah just stopped at a Holiday Inn late at night before leaving at first light the next day. When Abraham moved to a new city, the leadership of that city took note.
There was a big problem though: Sarah was gorgeous. And some of the city leaders had enough power to take whatever they wanted by force. If a king had a crush on the new girl in town, all he had to do was murder her husband and take the woman for himself. (Nice people.)
So when Abraham makes his way to Gerar, he’s concerned that his wife is so attractive that Gerar’s king, Abimlelech, will kill him just to be with her. Abraham has a backup plan though: he just tells everyone Sarah is his sister.
Turns out, Abimelech is totally into Sarah. He takes Sarah into his harem, but before he goes anywhere near the woman, God comes to him in a dream. You can read the whole exchange for yourself in Genesis 20, but the gist of it is: “Back off, dude: she’s taken.”
It’s probably worth noting here that when this goes down, Sarah is about 89 years old. Mesopotamian pilates is one of the world’s lost treasures.
2. Jacob’s ladder
(Genesis 28:12)
Jacob’s twin brother wants to kill him—though to be fair, Jacob did just cheat him out of the family blessing. So Jacob’s on the run. He stops to sleep one night, and dreams of a great stairway stretching from earth to heaven, with divine beings moving up and down.
At the top of the ladder is the Lord, who promises that Jacob will indeed return home, and his descendants will possess the land of Canaan.
3. Jacob’s call home
(Genesis 31:10–13)
Jacob loves to the land of his relative Laban, where he marries Laban’s daughters and works with his herds. Laban’s a tricky guy. He takes advantage of Jacob on several occasions. However, God still provides for Jacob—so much so that Jacob’s wealth begins to overtake Laban’s. Laban’s sons aren’t too happy with this, and Jacob senses that he is not among friends.
God comes to Jacob in a dream. The dream recaps Laban’s mistreatment of Jacob and shows that God has been providing for Jacob despite Laban’s schemes. The dream’s message is clear: it’s time to go home.
4. Laban’s warning
(Genesis 31:24)
Jacob takes off with his flocks and family—Laban’s daughters and grandchildren. Laban isn’t very happy about this, so he pursues Jacob. But before he catches up to Jacob, God comes to Laban in a dream. God warns Laban not to say anything good or bad to Jacob—just let him go.
5 & 6. Joseph’s grain and stars
(Genesis 37:1–10)
Jacob’s favorite son Joseph has two dreams that throw a wrench in the family dynamic. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers are gathering grain into sheaves. Jospeh’s sheaf stands upright, but the brother’s bundles of grain bow down to Joseph’s sheaf.
This aggravates Joseph’s brothers. Not only is Joseph the favorite son, now he thinks that he’s going to rule over the rest of them?
Then Jospeh has another dream. This time, the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down to him. This peeves his brothers and his father. “Really, kid? You think we’re all going to bow to you?”
Joke’s on them (Gn 42:6–9).
7. The cupbearer’s grapes
(Genesis 40:9–15)
Through a series of unfortunate events, Joseph finds himself in prison. He meets two other prisoners who had troubling dreams: Pharaoh’s former cupbearer and former baker.
The cupbearer dreams of a grape vine with three branches, which he harvests and presses into Pharaoh’s cup. The three branches represent three days between the dream and the cupbearer’s restoration to Pharaoh’s court.
8. The baker’s baskets
(Genesis 40:16–19)
The baker has a dream, too. In the dream, he carries three bread baskets on his head—but the birds eat the bread from them.
Not all dreams are good ones. The three baskets represent another three days—at the end of which Pharaoh beheads the baker, and the birds eat the baker’s flesh.
9 & 10. Pharaoh’s cows and grain
(Genesis 41)
Pharaoh has two disturbing dreams. In one, seven fat cows are devoured by seven scrawny ones. In another seven plump ears of grain are devoured by seven thin ones.
Only the prisoner Joseph can interpret this dream-riddle: Egypt is destined to have seven years of good harvest, which will be followed by seven years of devastating famine.
Joseph’s wisdom earns him the second-highest position in the kingdom, which allows him to accommodate his father and brothers when they seek refuge from the famine. (By the way: this is the biblical story of how Israel’s ancestors came to Egypt, where their descendants were eventually enslaved.)
11. The runaway barley loaf
(Judges 7:13–14)
Fast-forward to the book of Judges: Jacob’s and Joseph’s descendants have followed Moses and Joshua back to Canaan and settled in the land. But they still have conflict with the surrounding nations, including the Midianites. After Midian oppresses Israel for seven years, God raises up a leader named Gideon to overthrow them.
The night before Gideon storms the Midianite camp, Gideon overhears two Midianites discussing a dream one of them had: a loaf of barley rolls into camp and overturns a tent.
Somehow, the other guy can tell what the dream means: “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
Way to connect the dots, guy.
12. Solomon’s blank check
(1 Kings 3:5–15)
Suppose the Creator of the universe came to you in a dream one night and said, “You know what? Ask me for anything—anything you want. I’ll give it to you.” What would you ask for?
That’s what happens to king Solomon, son of the giant-slayer David. God comes to him in a dream offering him a divine blank check. Solomon plays it smart and asks for wisdom—not wealth, power, or a long life. So God grants him all of the above.
It’s a pretty sweet deal.
13. Nebuchadnezzar’s statue
(Daniel 2)
The king of Babylon has a terrifying dream, and nobody can interpret it but the Hebrew wise man, Daniel. This dream involves an enormous statue made of various materials—which represent different world kingdoms. The statue is smashed by a stone which becomes a mountain, representing the coming kingdom of God.
14. Nebuchadnezzar’s tree
(Daniel 4)
Same king, same problem: a troubling dream that only Daniel can interpret. This time a huge, magnificent tree is cut down to earth, and the stump and roots are left to go mad.
The dream represents Nebuchadnezzar’s coming downfall: God’s judgment on him for his arrogance.
15. Daniel’s beasts
(Daniel 7)
Now it’s Daniel’s turn to have dreams. In this dream, Daniel sees a lion, a bear, a leopard, and another strange, ten-horned beast come out of the sea. The Ancient of Days judges the beasts, and the Son of Man is given dominion over all the earth. The four beasts represent human empires.
16–20. Dreams surrounding Jesus’ birth
(Matthew 1:18–2:23)
A cluster of five dreams surround the birth of Christ in the first two chapters of :
- Joseph’s message. An angel tells Mary’s betrothed that there is no need to divorce her. The child she is expecting is the savior (Matthew 1:18–24).
- Magi’s warning. The wise men visit the young Jesus. God tells them in a dream to avoid king Herod as they return home—the jealous king wants to kill the boy.
- Joesph’s warning. Likewise, God warns Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt before Herod hunts down the children of Bethlehem.
- Return to Nazareth. After Herod dies, God tells Joseph he can come back home from Egypt.
- But not via Judea. However, Herod’s son is in power, so God warns Joseph to steer clear of his territory.
21. Pilate’s wife’s nightmare
(Matthew 27:19)
Jesus is on trial, right before he’s crucified. Pontius Pilate’s wife has a nightmare about the trial her husband is presiding over, because she knows that Jesus is innocent.
A few takeaways:
- Although the symbolic dreams from Genesis and Daniel are most memorable, the majority of these dreams are direct, explicit messages. “Go to Egypt.” “Now go back.” “No, not that way!” There’s no ambiguity in most of these.
- The text for the barley loaf dream in Judges is just too awesome not to share:
And he said, “Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.” His friend replied, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.” (Jdg 7:13–14)
Seriously? This guy wins the “Best at Connecting Dots” award for all time.
So there we are: every dream in the Bible. Of course, there’s a lot more to those symbolic dreams that I couldn’t fit here. Maybe I’ll do a piece on those individually sometime in the future.
I really appreciate all the effort you put into this! Do you have any thoughts on how to interpret today’s dreams? I believe they are still the work of God, but how do we learn to interpret them?
Lots of thoughts, but nothing authoritative. ;-)
The human mind is one of the most fascinating works of God—but I don’t think that means all dreams are significant on the level that, say, Joseph’s were. Still, I find them useful. You can learn a lot about yourself by paying attention to what you dream.
Wonderfully summarized. May you be more inspired. Enjoyed reading it
I have many dreams. In some I know that god is speaking and can hear him, others it’s a knowing, and in others I know there’s a message but not sure exactly what it is (I’m referring strictly to dreams that I know are from god and not processing or demonic dreams). I asked someone about it that is a leader in our church and she said that biblically a dream from god will have a clear message and only unbelievers in the Bible do not know what a dream meant. So as a believer, I should know exactly what a dream means or it’s just a random dream?
That’s a stretch on multiple fronts. Pilate’s wife knew from her dream (#21) that Jesus was innocent, and we have no reason to think she was a follower of Christ. The Midianite dream interpreter knew what the dream about the runaway barley loaf (#11) meant, and he likely worshipped gods who opposed the God of Israel. So I wouldn’t say that nonbelievers are incapable of discerning the meaning of dreams.
Ultimately the Bible doesn’t give us a handbook for interpreting dreams. Even Daniel, who was great at interpreting other people’s dreams, needed help with his own visions (Daniel 7:16). There’s no guarantee that we’ll understand the dreams we have, and there’s no biblical recipe for understanding them, either. That doesn’t mean dreams are meaningless—just means they’re mysterious. =)
Hey Jeff,
Great infographic. When I clicked on your link above, it only shows the very bottom of it… the rest is cut off. Is there anywhere that you have a pdf version that’s got the whole thing?
Thanks!
Hi Jeffrey,
Loved your dreams infograms. Prior to finding your work, I became intrigued by the dreams in Genesis and elsewhere as I was studying the book. I took a little different approach than “all” dreams to only the ones where something verbal was communicated. (example of non-verbal dream – Pharaoh’s dream of 7’s). My observation was language oriented in dreams to see how many different languages were communicated in dreams. No surprise that the God who created language(s) would be able to “speak” them all even in dreams. There are multiple dreams in Hebrew probably but here is a list of probable languages.
1. Abimalech’s Dream – Philistine
2. Pharoah’s Dream (no speaking but his description to Joseph was in Egyptian
3. Nebachadnezzar’s Dreams (interpretation by Daniel was in Babylonian)
4. Wisemen’s Dream (Mt) was perhaps in Persian
5. Joseph (Carpenter), Abraham, Baalam, Solomon’s dreams – Hebrew
6. Laban’s Dream – Aramean
7. Midianite soldier’s dream (Barley loaf) – Midian
8. Pilate’s wife’s dream – Latin
Any others I missed? I think here we might even mix dreams and visions from a language standpoint.
Paul
This is so wonderfully clear and concise! Really helpful and added greatly to a message I gave recently on dreams that God gives us. You have a powerful ministry to stimulate passion for the word of God by presenting things creatively and engaging the reader.
A couple of things…
1) This is really well done!
2) Are you a dreamer? If so, are you familiar with the book “The Divinty Code”? (Adam Thompson, Adrian Beale) It has been an amazing resource for biblical dream interpretation for me and my wife (both heavy dreamers). The metaphor dictionary is quite comprehensive and each meaning referenced back to specific scripture.
Thanks, Aaron! I’m glad this was helpful.
I’ve been a lucid dreamer since I was seven years old, so I suppose you could say I’m a dreamer. I have a lot of them, at least. I’m not familiar with Thompson & Beale’s work, but I’m glad you’ve found something that helps you and your wife!
Dreaming is an odd and fascinating subject to me—although that’s hardly a hot take. I’m not inclined to use the Bible to directly interpret personal dreams, mostly because the Bible doesn’t seem to claim to be for that. But on the other hand, dreams have brought about a lot of good for me and people around me (James 1:17). So whether the dreams come directly from God, or they’re a function of wisdom freely given to humans by God (James 1:5), I’m grateful to God for them.
Just found your blog – good stuff!
From your chart, it looks like Joseph of the NT has the most-recorded dreams in the Bible. Very interesting… I never would have thought that.
Thanks for your work!
He wasn’t exactly your average Joe.
Please excuse me while I turning myself in to the humor police.
Hi Jeffrey, Just found this great and concise article. Thank you! I haven’t read all the comments, but there were a few asking about those waking dreams that you categorized as “visions” or trances. Could you collect all of those and write a similar article for them? Makes a very nifty organizational resource to have all the visions/trances together as well as this piece on all the dreams! Thanks again!
Wow, this is great! I was looking for something different to share with our church bible study class. Thank you so much for this informative, spirit filled lesson. I also, loved the graphics.
May God continue to bless you with His knowledge.
This is great…and VERY accessible as far as informing AND entertaining a listener! Good job.
Thanks, Cody! That’s super kind of you.
Thank you so much! I already shared this richly informative article. The infographic makes it even better. Keep up the great work. From a fellow Bible geek blogger.
Thanks, Victoria! Glad this is helpful. =)
I have to tell you the timing of receiving this email on dreams was very weird. I have a friend in another state and we were emailing back and forth about the dreams we had last night. Then he shared that he had written a paper on dreams in college. That’s one coincidence. Because so did I. Then we shared a couple of recurring dreams and we had a dove-tail there, as well. THEN your email on dreams in the Bible and I was like WHOA! So cool.
I LOVE the diagram. Great Job!!
Thanks for all your hard work Jeff…you are truly blessed!!!!
Hi Jeff,
Hey is there anyway you could possibly split your infographics so they can be printed for bible study groups? When you try to print them the way they are they either come out TOO compressed or so small that you can’t read them?
It’s absolutely possible! The only issue is the time it takes me. ;-)
I would very much like to take all my infographics and split them down into not only letter-page handouts, but also Powerpoint presentations.
I learned most of what I know about Daniel’s dreams from the same Precept study! And Joseph’s dream and Solomon’s dream and…
It’s a pretty awesome study, isn’t it?
Great job.. In light of all the “God will give you a dream and the means to fulfill it” it’s very contrasting to how dreams looked biblically..
Thanks, Dominick!
That was a big takeaway for me, too. It was also interesting to note how few dreams the Bible records—and how clumped together they are.
Thanks for checking it out!
Thank you for taking the time to put that together! Very cool!
It was a pleasure. Thanks so much for checking it out!
This is great, however I thought Peter had a dream that showed him that it was now OK to eat what was considered unclean.
You’re right: Peter did see a sheet filled with all kinds of unclean animals and was told to “kill and eat.” However, Luke says that Peter “fell into a trance” (Ac 10:10), and later calls this experience a vision (Ac 10:17).
The line between dream and vision can get a little blurry (see Daniel 7:1–2), but one distinction is that dreams only occur when the dreamer is asleep, while visions can happen while the beholder is awake.
Thanks so much for reading, Andrew! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Love this! As a fellow Bible Geek, I was giddy when I saw this on Compassion’s fb page.
Many thanks, Cassandra! I’m so glad you liked it.
Also, if you have any ideas for future infographics I can do, feel free to send them my way! I love working with suggestions from fellow Bible geeks.
Thanks again for the kind words.
Abraham fell into a deep sleep & horror came over him. ??
I love this study though….nice job.
Hey Joanne. Genesis 15 was actually a tough one for me. Abraham certainly slept through the last half of the chapter! I didn’t categorize Genesis 15 events as a dream for a few reasons:
Whereas dreams happen during sleep, Genesis seems to depict sleep happening during a vision. This also happens to Daniel (Da 8:18). Of course, we could have a case of a dream coinciding with a vision, which Daniel 7:1–2 seems to allow for.
Kind of hazy, right? It’s certainly interesting.
Thanks for reading!
A dream within a dream… Sounds familiar.
It’s from that one movie . . . Prinception Bride, was it?
Great job; only took me about 5 minutes. Loved the humor. Where did you get that from?
Let’s pull a Luke 15:12 and call it an advance on my inheritance. =)