'Vision' in the Bible

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,“Do not be afraid, Abram,I am your shield;Your reward [for obedience] shall be very great.”

So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone he had put under his head and he set it up as a pillar [that is, a monument to the vision in his dream], and he poured [olive] oil on the top of it [to consecrate it].

And He said,“Hear now My words:If there is a prophet among you,I the Lord will make Myself known to him in a visionAnd I will speak to him in a dream.

The oracle of one who hears the words of God,Who sees the vision of the Almighty,Falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered,

The oracle of him who hears the words of GodAnd knows the knowledge of the Most High,Who sees the vision of the Almighty,Falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered:

Now the boy Samuel was attending to the service of the Lord under the supervision of Eli. The word of the Lord was rare and precious in those days; visions [that is, new revelations of divine truth] were not widespread.

So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.

Nathan spoke to David in accordance with all these words and all of this vision.

According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his godly achievements, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

“He flies away like a dream and cannot be found;Yes, he is chased away like a vision of the night.

“In a dream, a vision of the night [one may hear God’s voice],When deep sleep falls on menWhile slumbering upon the bed,

Once You spoke in a vision to Your godly ones,And said, “I have given help to one who is mighty [giving him the power to be a champion for Israel];I have exalted one chosen from the people.

Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained;But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].

The vision of [the prophet] Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning [the kingdom of] Judah and [its capital] Jerusalem, which he saw [as revealed by God] during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw [in a vision] the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, with the train of His royal robe filling the [most holy part of the] temple.

A harsh vision has been shown to me;The treacherous one deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys.Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!All the groaning [caused by Babylon’s ruthless oppressions] I [the Lord] have brought to an end.

“Now look! Here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.”And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon;And all the carved images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Valley of Vision:What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,

For the Lord God of hosts has a day of panic and of tumult, of trampling, of confusionIn the Valley of Vision,A [day of] breaking down wallsAnd a crying [for help] to the mountain.

Elam took up the quiverWith the chariots, infantry and horsemen;And Kir uncovered the shield.

But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;They reel while seeing visions,They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel (Jerusalem),Even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

The entire vision [of all these things] will be to you like the words of a scroll that is sealed, which they give to one who can read, saying, “Read this, please,” he shall say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

I looked at the earth [in my vision], and behold, it was [as at the time of creation] formless and void;And to the heavens, and they had no light.

Then the Lord said to me, “The [counterfeit] prophets are prophesying lies in My Name. I have neither sent them nor authorized them nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you made-up visions [pretending to call forth responses from handmade gods], a worthless divination and the deceit of their own mind.

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.They are teaching you worthless things and are leading you into futility;They speak a vision of their own mind and imaginationAnd not [truth] from the mouth of the Lord.

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah [who was also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah [along] with the craftsmen and smiths into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, the Lord showed me [in a vision] two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord.

But if you keep refusing to go out and surrender to them, this is the word [and the vision] which the Lord has shown me:

Her gates have sunk into the ground;He has destroyed and broken her bars.Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations;The law is no more.Also, her prophets no longer findVision from the Lord.

So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went embittered [by the sins of Israel] in the rage of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was strong on me.

For the seller will not regain and return to what he sold, even were they yet alive; for the vision [of punishment] regarding all the multitude [of people] will not be turned back, nor will any one of them sustain his life because of his sin.

Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be heaped on rumor; they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law and guidance will be lost from the priest and [wise] counsel [will cease] from the elders.

And behold, the glory and brilliance of the God of Israel [who had loved and chosen them] was there, like the vision which I saw in the plain.

Then [in my vision] I heard Him cry out with a thunderous voice, saying, “Approach now, executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.”

And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea (Babylonia). Then the vision that I had seen left me.

“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days are long and every vision fails’?

Therefore tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel.” But say to them, “The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision.

For there will no longer be any false and empty vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel.

“Son of man, behold, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that Ezekiel sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies of the times that are far off.’

Did you not see (make up) a false vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘The Lord declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?”’”

Then he measured the temple, a hundred cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long.

And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision I saw beside the River Chebar [near Babylon]; and I fell face downward.

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel said, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea (the nations).

In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a [second] vision appeared to me, Daniel, [this was two years] after the one that first appeared to me.

I looked in the vision and it seemed that I was at the citadel of Susa, [the capital of Persia], which is in the province of Elam; and I looked in the vision and I saw myself by the Ulai Canal.

[In my vision] I saw him come close to the ram (Medo-Persia), and he was filled with rage toward him; and the goat (Greece) struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to stand before him. So the goat threw him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power.

And [in my vision] this horn grew up to the host of heaven, and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled on them.

Then I heard a holy one (angel) speaking, and another holy one said to the one who was speaking, “How much time will be required to complete the vision regarding the regular sacrifice, the transgression that brings horror, and the trampling underfoot of both the sanctuary and the host [of the people]?”

When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; then behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man.

And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of the Ulai, which called out and said, “Gabriel, give this man (Daniel) an understanding of the vision.”

So he came near where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell face downward; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the [fulfillment of the] vision pertains to [events that will occur in] the time of the end.”

“The vision of the evenings and the morningsWhich has been told [to you] is true.But keep the vision a secret,For it has to do with many days in the now distant future.”

And I, Daniel, was exhausted and was sick for [several] days. Afterward I got up and continued with the king’s business; but I was astounded at the vision, and there was no one who could explain it.

while I was still speaking in prayer and extremely exhausted, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

At the beginning of your supplications, the command [to give you an answer] was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly regarded and greatly beloved. Therefore consider the message and begin to understand the [meaning of the] vision.

“Seventy weeks [of years, or 490 years] have been decreed for your people and for your holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make atonement (reconciliation) for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness (right-standing with God), to seal up vision and prophecy and prophet, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and it referred to great conflict (warfare, misery). And he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.

And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision [of this heavenly being], for the men who were with me did not see the vision; nevertheless, a great panic overwhelmed them, so they ran away to hide themselves.

So I was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for my normal appearance turned to a deathly pale, and I grew weak and faint [with fright].

Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision is in regard to the days yet to come.”

And behold, one who resembled the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, “O my lord, because of the vision anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength.

The vision of Obadiah.Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom—We have heard a report from the Lord,And an ambassador has been sent among the nations, saying,“Arise, and let us rise up against Edom for battle [with the Lord as commander]!”

Therefore it will be night (tragedy) for you—without vision,And darkness (cataclysm) for you—without foresight.The sun shall go down on the [false] prophets,And the day shall become dark and black over them.

The oracle (a burdensome message—a pronouncement from God) concerning Nineveh [the capital city of Assyria]. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh [which he saw in spirit and prophesied].

Then the Lord answered me and said,“Write the visionAnd engrave it plainly on [clay] tabletsSo that the one who reads it will run.

“For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] timeIt hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail.Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it,Because it will certainly come; it will not delay.

I [Habakkuk, in my vision] saw the tents of Cushan under distress;The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

In the night I saw [a vision] and behold, a Man was riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees that were in the ravine; and behind Him were horses: red, sorrel (reddish-brown), and white.

And in that day the [false] prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not wear a hairy robe [of true prophets] in order to deceive,

But when he did come out, he was unable to speak to them. They realized that he had seen a vision in the temple; and he kept making signs to them, and remained mute.

and they did not find His body. Then they came back, saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive!

And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form [His majesty and greatness—what He is like].

Now in Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he answered, “Here I am, Lord.”

and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him, so that he may regain his sight.”

About the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had come to him and said, “Cornelius!”

Now Peter was still perplexed and completely at a loss as to what his vision could mean when the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, arrived at the gate.

While Peter was thoughtfully considering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Now listen, three men are looking for you.

“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision of an object coming down from heaven, like a huge sheet being lowered by the four corners; and [it descended until] it came right down to me,

And Peter went out following the angel. He did not realize that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

Then a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man from [the Roman province of] Macedonia was standing and pleading with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

And when he had seen the vision, we (including Luke) tried to go on into Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid anymore, but go on speaking and do not be silent;

“So, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but [imitate] what is good. The one who practices good [exhibiting godly character, moral courage and personal integrity] is of God; the one who practices [or permits or tolerates] evil has not seen God [he has no personal experience with Him and does not know Him at all].

saying, “Write on a scroll what you see [in this revelation], and send it to the seven churches—to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

And this is how I saw the horses and their riders in my vision: the riders had breastplates [the color] of fire and of hyacinth (sapphire blue) and of brimstone (yellow); and the heads of the horses looked like the heads of lions; and from out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone (burning sulfur).