stood beside him" in parallel the words of "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai." Interpreting Jacob's dream of a ladder in , a Tanna taught that the width of the ladder was 8,000 parasangs (perhaps 24,000 miles). The Tanna noted that reports "the angels of God ascending and descending on it," and thus deduced from the plural that at least two angels were ascending and two descending, and when they came to the same place on the ladder, there were four angels abreast. And reports of an angel that "His body was like the Tarshish," and by tradition the sea of Tarshish is 2,000 parasangs long. reports that Jacob "had a dream." And reports that "God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night." The Gemara taught that a dream is a sixtieth part of prophecy. Rabbi Hanan taught that even if the Master of Dreams (an angel, in a dream that truly foretells the future) tells a person that on the next day the person will die, the person should not desist from prayer, for as says, "For in the multitude of dreams are vanities and also many words, but fear God." (Although a dream may seem reliably to predict the future, it will not necessarily come true; one must place one's trust in God.) Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that a person is shown in a dream only what is suggested by the person's own thoughts (while awake), as says, "As for you, Oh King, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed," and says, "That you may know the thoughts of the heart." When Samuel had a bad dream, he used to quote , "The dreams speak falsely." When he had a good dream, he used to question whether dreams speak falsely, seeing as in , God says, "I speak with him in a dream?" Rava pointed out the potential contradiction between and . The Gemara resolved the contradiction, teaching that , "I speak with him in a dream?" refers to dreams that come through an angel, whereas , "The dreams speak falsely," refers to dreams that come through a demon. A Midrash taught that those angels who escort a person in the Land of Israel do not escort that person outside of the Land. Thus "the angels of God ascending" in refers to those who