Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.
Parallel translations
- WEB Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
- KJV Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
- NKJV Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals him away in the night.
- NASB “Terrors overtake him like a flood; A storm steals him away in the night.
- NLT Terror overwhelms them like a flood, and they are blown away in the storms of the night.
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 sweep over the wicked like a flood, and a storm carries him off in the night.
Overview
Job pictures the wicked man overtaken by sudden, overwhelming dread, like rising waters that cannot be resisted. The imagery of a night storm stresses how unexpected and inescapable judgment can be. It underscores that those who reject God have no refuge in the day of calamity, while the righteous find their refuge in the Lord (Psalm 46:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 15:21Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.
- Job 18:11Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.
- Job 21:18Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- Job 20:23When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
- 2 Kgs 19:35And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Exod 12:29Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.
- Ps 69:14–15Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 18:4The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
- Job 22:16They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
- Job 34:20They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.
- Job 20:8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
- Dan 5:30That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,
- Jonah 2:3For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.
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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 27:20 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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