Job 7:14

7:14 then you scare me ¹  with dreams

and terrify ²  me with ³  visions,

Job 13:21

13:21 Remove ⁴  your hand ⁵  far from me

and stop making me afraid with your terror. ⁶ 

Job 16:7

16:7 Surely now he ⁷  has worn me out,

you have devastated my entire household.

Job 18:11

18:11 Terrors ⁸  frighten him on all sides

and dog ⁹  his every step.

Job 21:6

21:6 For, when I think ¹⁰  about this, I am terrified ¹¹ 

and my body feels a shudder. ¹² 

Job 27:20

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ¹³ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

Job 32:15

Job’s Friends Failed to Answer ¹⁴ 

32:15 “They are dismayed ¹⁵  and cannot answer any more;

they have nothing left to say. ¹⁶ 

Job 33:16

33:16 Then he gives a revelation ¹⁷  to people,

and terrifies them with warnings, ¹⁸ 

Job 41:14

41:14 Who can open the doors of its mouth? ¹⁹ 

Its teeth all around are fearsome.

Job 41:22

41:22 Strength lodges in its neck,

and despair ²⁰  runs before it.

[7:14]  ¹ tn The Piel of חָתַת (khatat) occurs only here and in Jer 51:56 (where it is doubtful). The meaning is clearly “startle, scare.” The perfect verb with the ו (vav) is fitting in the apodosis of the conditional sentence.

[7:14]  ² tn The Piel of בָּעַת (ba’at, “terrify”) is one of the characteristic words in the book of Job; it occurs in 3:5; 9:34; 13:11, 21; 15:24; 18:11; and 33:7.

[7:14]  ³ tn The prepositions בּ (bet) and מִן (min) interchange here; they express the instrument of causality. See N. Sarna, “The Interchange of the Prepositions bet and min in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 78 (1959): 310-16. Emphasis on the instruments of terror in this verse is highlighted by the use of chiasm in which the prepositional phrases comprise the central elements (ab//b’a’). Verse 18 contains another example.

[13:21]  ⁴ tn The imperative הַרְחַק (harkhaq, “remove”; GKC 98 §29.q), from רָחַק (rakhaq, “far, be far”) means “take away [far away]; to remove.”

[13:21]  ⁵ sn This is a common, but bold, anthropomorphism. The fact that the word used is כַּף (kaf, properly “palm”) rather than יָד (yad, “hand,” with the sense of power) may stress Job’s feeling of being trapped or confined (see also Ps 139:5, 7).

[13:21]  ⁶ tn See Job 9:34.

[16:7]  ⁷ tn In poetic discourse there is often an abrupt change from person to another. See GKC 462 §144.p. Some take the subject of this verb to be God, others the pain (“surely now it has worn me out”).

[18:11]  ¹⁰ sn Bildad is referring here to all the things that afflict a person and cause terror. It would then be a metonymy of effect, the cause being the afflictions.

[18:11]  ¹¹ tn The verb פּוּץ (puts) in the Hiphil has the meaning “to pursue” and “to scatter.” It is followed by the expression “at his feet.” So the idea is easily derived: they chase him at his feet. But some commentators have other proposals. The most far-fetched is that of Ehrlich and Driver (ZAW 24 [1953]: 259-60) which has “and compel him to urinate on his feet,” one of many similar readings the NEB accepted from Driver.

[21:6]  ¹³ tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”). Here it has the sense of “to keep in memory; to meditate; to think upon.”

[21:6]  ¹⁴ tn The main clause is introduced here by the conjunction, following the adverbial clause of time.

[21:6]  ¹⁵ tn Some commentators take “shudder” to be the subject of the verb, “a shudder seizes my body.” But the word is feminine (and see the usage, especially in Job 9:6 and 18:20). It is the subject in Isa 21:4; Ps 55:6; and Ezek 7:18.

[27:20]  ¹⁶ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[32:15]  ¹⁹ sn Elihu now will give another reason why he will speak – the arguments of these friends failed miserably. But before he gets to his argument, he will first qualify his authority.

[32:15]  ²⁰ tn The verb חַתּוּ (khattu) is from חָתַת (khatat) which means “to be terrified.” But here it stresses the resulting dilemma. R. Gordis (Job, 369) renders it, “they are shattered, beaten in an argument.”

[32:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “words have moved away from them,” meaning words are gone from them, they have nothing left to say.

[33:16]  ²² tn The idiom is “he uncovers the ear of men.” This expression means “inform” in Ruth 4:4; 1 Sam 20:2, etc. But when God is the subject it means “make a revelation” (see 1 Sam 9:15; 2 Sam 7:27).

[33:16]  ²³ tc Heb “and seals their bonds.” The form of the present translation, “and terrifies them with warnings,” is derived only by emending the text. Aquila, the Vulgate, Syriac, and Targum Job have “their correction” for “their bond,” which is what the KJV used. But the LXX, Aquila, and the Syriac have “terrifies” for the verb. This involves a change in pointing from יָחְתֹּם (yakhtom) to יְחִתֵּם (yÿkhittem). The LXX has “appearances of fear” instead of “bonds.” The point of the verse seems to be that by terrifying dreams God makes people aware of their ways.

[41:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “his face.”

[41:22]  ²⁸ tn This word, דְּאָבָה (dÿ’avah) is a hapax legomenon. But the verbal root means “to languish; to pine.” A related noun talks of dejection and despair in Deut 28:65. So here “despair” as a translation is preferable to “terror.”