Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals 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.
- BSB Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps 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 sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
- Job 18:11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.
- Job 21:18How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
- Job 20:23When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
- 2 Kgs 19:35That night, Yahweh’s angel went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
- Exod 12:29At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of livestock.
- Ps 69:14–15Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 18:4The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
- Job 22:16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
- Job 34:20In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.
- 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.
- Dan 5:30In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.
- Jonah 2:3For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.