Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
: – ''ʾereṣ-Nōḏ'') is a place mentioned in the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...
of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Eden" (''qiḏmaṯ-ʿḖḏen''), where
Cain
Cain is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. How ...
was exiled by God after Cain had murdered his brother
Abel
Abel ( ''Hébel'', in pausa ''Hā́ḇel''; ''Hábel''; , ''Hābēl'') is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within the Abrahamic religions. Born as the second son of Adam and Eve, the first two humans created by God in Judaism, God, he ...
. According to Genesis 4:16:
Genesis 4:17 relates that after arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife had a son with him,
Enoch
Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible.
The text of t ...
, in whose name he built the first city.
Name
"Nod" () is the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
root of the verb "to wander" (). Therefore, to dwell in the land of Nod can mean to live a wandering life. Gesenius defines () as follows:
TO BE MOVED, TO BE AGITATED (Arab. Med. Waw id.), used of a reed shaken by the wind, 1Ki.14:15; hence ''to wander, to be a fugitive'', Jer. 4:1; Gen. 4:12, 14; Ps.56:9; ''to flee'', Ps. 11:1; Jer. 49:30. Figuratively, Isa. 17:11, "the harvest has fled" but see ," which some take in this place as the subst (substitute).
Much as Cain's name is connected to the verb meaning "to get" in Genesis 4:1, the name "Nod" closely resembles the word "nad" (), usually translated as "vagabond", in Genesis 4:12. (In the
Septuagint
The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...
's rendering of th same verse God curses Cain to τρέμων (''tremōn''), "trembling".)
A Greek version of Nod written as (''Nain'') appearing in the '' Onomastica Vaticana'' possibly derives from the plural (''naḥim''), which relates to resting and sleeping. This derivation, coincidentally or not, connects with the English pun on "nod".Howard Jacobson, The Land of Nod , ''Journal of Theological Studies'', New Series, 41(1), April 1990. "Since the early part of the eighteenth century (according to the ''OED'') the phrase 'Land of Nod' has been used to mean 'sleep'. Scholars seem in agreement that this is a play on the Biblical place-name grounded in the use of the verb 'nod' in the sense 'sleep' (first in the early seventeenth century, according to the ''OED''). But we have now seen that 'Land of Nod' as 'Land of the sleepers' goes back centuries and more, and to Graeco-Hebrew etymologies. What are we to think? is this nothing more than utterly remarkable coincidence? Or has our Onomastic etymology influenced the English usage? I leave the question to students of the history of the English language."
Interpretation
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
wrote in ''
Antiquities of the Jews
''Antiquities of the Jews'' (; , ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, which was 94 CE. It cont ...
'' (c. AD 93) that Cain continued his wickedness in Nod: resorting to violence and robbery; establishing
weights and measures
A unit of measurement, or unit of measure, is a definite magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other qua ...
; transforming human culture from innocence into craftiness and deceit; establishing property lines; and building a fortified
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
.
Nod is said to be outside of the presence or face of God.
Origen
Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...
defined Nod as the land of trembling and wrote that it symbolized the condition of all who forsake God. Early commentators treated it as the opposite of Eden (worse still than the land of exile for the rest of humanity). In the English tradition Nod was sometimes described as a desert inhabited only by ferocious beasts or monsters. Others interpreted Nod as dark or even underground—away from the face of God.Oliver F. Emerson, Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English , ''Publications of the Modern Language Association of America'' 21(4), 1906; po. 865, 871.
Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
described unconverted Jews as dwellers in the land of Nod, which he defined as commotion and "carnal disquietude".
Places named "Land of Nod"
U.K.
Land of Nod is the name of a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...
, England. It is located at the far end of a two-mile-long (3.2 km) road, which joins the
A614 road
The A614 is a main road in England running through the counties of Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Route
Beginning at Redhill, Nottinghamshire, Redhill, the northernmost point in the Nottingham suburb of Arno ...
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
, UK ().
U.S.
The name "Land of Nod" was accorded locally to the northerly 3,000 acres (1,214.1 hectares) of the Great Plot lying north of Woburn,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, at its foundation in 1640–42, "the name being probably suggested by a comparison of its forlorn condition — so far remote from church ordinances — with the Nod to which Cain wandered when he went 'from the presence of the Lord'." Its Native American name was ''Nena Saawaattawattocks''.
Land of Nod Road is the name of a residential road in Windham,
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
, US ().
In popular culture
The Land of Nod can refer to the mythical land of sleep, a pun on ''Land of Nod'' (Gen. 4:16). To "go off to the land of Nod" plays with the phrase to "nod off", meaning to go to sleep.
The first recorded use of the phrase to mean "sleep" comes from
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
in his ''Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation'' (1737) and ''
Gulliver's Travels
''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'', is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clerg ...
''.
Later instances of this usage appear: in "Brother Rabbit and His Famous Foot" (story #30 in
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris (December 9, 1848 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his t ...
' ''Nights with Uncle Remus'' 1883 collection), in which the narrator says that the old African teller Daddy Jack, having just fallen asleep, has reached the land of Nod; in the poem "The Land of Nod" by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
Neal Shusterman
Neal Shusterman (born November 12, 1962) is an American writer of young adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his book Challenger Deep (novel), ''Challenger Deep'' and his novel, ''Scythe (novel), ...
, the Land of Nod is mythologized as containing a mythical fail-safe against the Scythedom and becomes critically important to the plot of the third book.Shusterman, Neal. Scythe. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
In Fevre Dream by
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...
, the Land of Nod is suggested as a place where
vampires
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...
originated.
In the
Command & Conquer
''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself ba ...
series, one of the two warring factions is named the Brotherhood of Nod, who are led by and devoted to a mysterious and charismatic figure named Kane.
See also
* Duidain, a wilderness to the east of the Garden of Eden in the
Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch;
Hebrew language, Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, ''Sēfer Ḥănōḵ''; , ) is an Second Temple Judaism, ancient Jewish Apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the Patriar ...
References
Sources
* Byron, John. Cain and Abel in text and tradition : Jewish and Christian interpretations of the first sibling rivalry. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
* Delaney, David Kevin. ''The Sevenfold Vengeance of Cain: Genesis 4 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation''. PhD dissertation accepted at University of Virginia, May 1996.