Now as he was speaking with me,.... Addressing him in the above manner: I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground; through fear he fell prostrate to the ground, and swooned away, which issued in a deep sleep; and so was unfit to attend to the explanation of the vision the angel was sent to give him; and which was not through indifference to it, or neglect of it; but through human weakness, his nature not being able to bear up under such circumstances, which struck him with such fear and dread: but he touched me, and set me upright; he jogged him out of his sleep, and took him, and raised him up, and set him on his feet; or, "on his standing" (m); which Ben Melech explains, as he "was standing at first"; and so in a better posture to attend to what was about to be revealed unto him. (m) "super stare meum", Montanus, Gejerus; "super stationem meam", Michaelis.