“Terrors surround the wicked and trouble them at every step.
Parallel translations
- WEB Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.
- KJV Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
- BSB Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.
- NKJV Terrors frighten him on every side, And drive him to his feet.
- NASB “All around sudden terrors frighten him, And harass him at every step.
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
Terrors assail the wicked man on every side and pursue him relentlessly. He is hounded by fear without rest.
Overview
Bildad portrays the godless surrounded by dread that chases him at his heels. The relentless pursuit of terror dramatizes the inner torment of judgment. While the guilty conscience of the wicked is real (Proverbs 28:1), Bildad's blanket application overlooks that the righteous, like Job, may also be beset by terrors within God's mysterious purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 15:21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
- Jer 6:25Don’t go out into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror, are on every side.
- Jer 49:29They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, Terror on every side!
- Lev 26:36“‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.
- Job 20:25He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
- Jer 46:5Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says Yahweh.
- 2 Cor 5:11Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God; and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.
- Rev 6:15–16The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
- Ps 73:19How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.
- Ps 53:5There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
- Jer 20:3–4On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib.
- Prov 28:1The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- Job 20:8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.
- 2 Kgs 7:6–7For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots, and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.”
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 18:11 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
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