Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.
- KJV Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
- BSB The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.
- NKJV The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.
- NASB “It is the Lord of armies whom you are to regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Instead of fearing human threats, God's people must regard the Lord himself as holy and reverence him above all.
Overview
The cure for misplaced fear is the right fear of God: holding Yahweh of Armies as holy and dreading him alone. When God is feared rightly, lesser fears lose their grip. The First Letter of Peter applies this directly to Christ, calling believers to sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts (1 Peter 3:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Luke 12:5But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
- Rev 15:4Who wouldn’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.”
- Isa 26:3–4You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.
- Matt 10:28Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
- Ps 76:7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Mal 2:5“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name.
- Num 20:12–13Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
- Gen 31:53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
- Isa 29:23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
- Rom 4:20Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
- Num 27:14because in the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, to honor me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
- Lev 10:3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” Aaron held his peace.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 8:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.