Talk:Land of Nod

Untitled

The current Bible passage is from the somewhat obscure New Living Translation. I'm going to change it to one from the King James Version, just because that is arguably the most familiar version. The KJV isn't even my preferred translation, but it is more well known. Lairor 17:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Coast to Coast

Coast to Coast Am hosted by Art Bell was announced from "The Land of Nye" not Nod. Art lived in Nye County, NV. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.21.111.186 (talk) 04:54, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Translation question

I have a question abt this paragraph which an expert on Hebrew might be able to fix:

"Nod" (נוד) is the Hebrew root of the verb "to wander" (לנדוד) and is possibly an etymological etiology intended to explain the peripatetic lifestyle of Cain and his descendants, the Cainites. One interpretation of Genesis 4:16 is that Cain was cursed to wander the land forever, not that he was exiled to a "Land of Wanderers", otherwise absent from the Old Testament.

My question relates to the 'Land of 'Wanderers" part - I don't think you can in fact translate eretz-nod as "land of wanderers", as nod is not a plural noun. I think "Land of Wander(ing)" might be closer, but I'm not suer. Any ideas? PiCo 01:41, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

a possible answer

The Septuagint translation which is based on Hebrew texts about a thousand year older than the Masoretic, has not "nod", but "NAID", which reflects a Hebrew text like NAHID OR NA'ID, or simply a corruption of the Greek word ΙΝΔΙΑ. East of Mesopotamia (Eden) is simply India. The name for India was corrupted into NAID and later NOD perhaps through a popular false etymology. The people of India had and still have a mark on their forehead for protection, do you understand something from that? They also worship as God "Shiva", who is simply the spirit of envy and destruction. In India there is a class of outcastes which became gypsies in other countries with a strange "fate" not to ever have a land and be always in misery. Compare to the painting of Cain's exile in the article. Does this all ring a bell for your question? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 888gowinda (talk • contribs) 12:09, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Very interesting. It is said in the History of Tabari that after Adam was exiled from Jannat al-'Adn (the Garden of Eden), he landed upon a mountain in India (or rather Sarandib/Sri Lanka) known as Budh (بوذ) but within the English translation it is rendered as Nudh in reference to the Land of Nod.--MuslimKnight786 (talk) 18:49, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Sleep

The section on "land of Nod" meaning "sleep" needs to be cleaned up. Every dictionary says that nodding (off) was in use long before Swift, and that Land of Nod to mean sleep was a pun on the verb's extant meaning. So the suggestion that nod off was coined by Swift, or is in any way related to Nod, should be removed. Moreover, I can't find any reliable source for the claim that Swift was the first to use the pun. I mean, the source used here is Everything2. Not only does that source not even give the title of the Swift work correctly—it's A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, not Polite—but it's just another place where any yahoo [thanks, Jonathan] can put something on the internet without a citation. It's like citing another Wikipedia page. Not much of an encyclopedic source.--76.28.236.209 (talk) 23:40, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

You are quite right. This entry should be about the Biblical Hebrew name "Nod" and the refuge of Cain, which only coincidentally sounds like the modern English verb "to nod". I will be adding some obscure extra-Biblical historiographic sources that give other names for the refuge of Cain, that don't sound particularly like any modern English word, or give other info, sometimes contradicting Masoretic Genesis, like locating it west of Eden rather than east. That's the type of info I would want to find here. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 11:42, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Meaning of ‘Nod’

To the common Israeli, as I can testify, the phrase ‘land of Nod’ would mean just that he started wandering, not that he actually went to a specific place named ‘Nod’.

Also, I’m not sure how noteworthy this is, but ‘nod’ means ‘fart’ in (somewhat obsolete) Israeli slang. Siúnrá (talk) 08:27, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Cities of Refuge

There is a possibilty that the Land of Nod represents one of the cities of refuge which were common throughout mesopotamia during Biblical times. I am not qualified to make such a call, but here is a reference from Dr. Michael Hudson.

"The first city that appears in the Bible (Genesis 4) is not a commercial port, administrative capital or military outpost, but the city of refuge located “east of Eden . . . in the land of Nod,” to which Adam’s son Cain withdrew after he killed his brother Abel. This city evidently was already established and populated, but we are not told by whom. Such cities of refuge are found not only in the Old Testament but also in Native American communities at the time of their first contact with white men, suggesting a nearly universal response to the problem of what to do with public offenders. Throughout history, exile has been a widespread punishment for manslaughter and other capital crimes, including treason. The exile is obliged to leave his native community on pain of death, liable to retaliation by the victim’s family taking revenge. Sanctuaries for such fugitives must have been well peopled, for an early myth says that Romulus helped populate Rome by founding an asylum for them. The Israelites are said to have created twelve cities of refuge, one for each tribal region. Genesis 9 stipulates that “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” Exodus 21 qualifies this by adding that as long as there was no deliberate murder with premeditated guile, “if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate.” Numbers 35 reports that the Lord commanded Moses to “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly.” Six towns were thus appointed, to be overseen by Levite priests. More details are provided by Joshua 20, a veritable manual for how to inaugurate a city or new society." From Sacred Enclave to Temple to City by Michael Hudson WjtWeston (talk) 23:21, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

New Literary Reference

In the book True Grit by Charles Portis, the phrase "to go to the Land of Nod" is used when Mattie goes to sleep at the end of chapter 6 or 5. (Or because they don't label the chapters and chapter one could be a prelude) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.177.190.111 (talk) 20:13, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Bible's 1st BIG Contradiction - other people beside Adam, Eve & Cain

I added the following to the introduction... This story is a contradiction and has been hard to explain by Bible experts for 3,000+ years. If God created Adam and Eve in his image about 6,000-years-ago, and they had two sons Cain and Abel, then how did all these other people appear east of Eden in the Land of Nod? 73.85.205.123 (talk) 14:44, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

This does not go in the lead. If it is added it should be added to the Interpretation section. However it should not be added as it is WP:UNSOURCED. It is also outside the scope of this article to question the veracity of anything in the Bible. This would go in the article Criticism of the Bible. I reverted your edit. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 18:03, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

The reason there were more people on the earth besides Adam and Eve is because you are not reading the passage in the proper context. The passage clearly states the pluralism of the creation of mankind in that it says male and female created he them. This is indicative of a plural creation. Although it does state that God took the man (Adam) and placed him in the garden, he (Adam) was what I like to refer to as a "special" human that was given special treatment while the other "created humans" were not considered to be all that special and were placed outside of the confines of the garden. 64.114.27.130 (talk) 05:53, 7 August 2023 (UTC)