Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Parallel translations
- WEB Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
- BSB Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps 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 15:21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
- Job 18:11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
- Job 21:18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
- Job 20:23When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
- 2 Kgs 19:35And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- Exod 12:29And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
- Ps 69:14–15Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 18:4The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
- Ps 42:7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
- Job 22:16Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
- Job 34:20In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.
- Job 20:8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
- Dan 5:30In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
- Jonah 2:3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed 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
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.