A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
Parallel Translations
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A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
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A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Job 15:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 18:11 Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.
- Leviticus 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.
- 1 Corinthians 10:10 Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.
- Job 1:13-19 It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Job 20:5-7 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
- Job 20:22-25 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. When 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. He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
- Job 27:20 Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
- Psalms 92:7 though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.
- Proverbs 1:26-27 I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.
- Revelation 9:11 They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.
- Genesis 3:9-10 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
- 1 Samuel 25:36-38 Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.
- Psalms 73:18-20 Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.
- 2 Kings 7:6 For 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.”
- Acts 12:21-23 On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them. The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 15:21 A dreadful sound [is] in his ears:…
Job 15:21 A dreadful sound [is] in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
Ver. 21. A dreadfid sound is in his ears] Heb. A sound of fear and terror. Not one, but many at once, so that he is a Magormissabib, factus a corde sua fugitivus (Tertul.), as Cain, that wretch, and those Hivites, with their hornets of a clamorous conscience, worse to them than if their bodies had been tormented with stings or torn with stripes, Exo 23:28. What a sound of terror in their ears frighted those Syrians! 2Ki 7:6; and those Persians and Saracens overcome by Theodosius! Panico terrore incusso, saith the historian, afraid of their own shadows, they desperately cast themselves into the river Euphrates, and there perished above a hundred thousand of them, A.D. 394. The wicked flee when none pursueth, Pro 28:1; the sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him, Lev 26:36, when the righteous is bold as a lion, and not dismayed at evil tidings, Psa 112:7. His heart is balanced with the fear of God; and thence it is that he floateth steadily; blow what wind it will, he sails to the port; storms and tempests do but beat him into it.
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In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him] Heb. In peace, when he shall say, Peace and safety, 1Th 5:3. When he is at the highest he shall be destroyed, Dan 4:30-31. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits, Job 20:22. His short spring shall have an eternal winter, Psa 92:7. Ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus, say physicians, The utmost degree of health is nearest to sickness; so the wicked when nearest misery have greatest prosperity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented…
Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears and expectations of it from the sense of his own guilt, and of God’s all-seeing eye and righteous judgment. See Lev 26:36; Deu 28:65.
Shall come upon him; or, shall invade and destroy him suddenly and unexpectedly; which is a great aggravation of it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He believeth not that he shall return out of…
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,.... When he lies down at night he despairs of ever seeing the light of the morning, through fear of an enemy, a robber, a murderer, or of one disaster or another, Deu 28:66; or when he is in any affliction and calamity, which is often signified by darkness, he cannot persuade himself that he shall ever be delivered out of it, and restored to his former condition again: and here Eliphaz seems to glance at Job, who had no hope of his being brought into such a state of prosperity he had been in; whereas good men, when in darkness, believe they shall be brought again to the light, as the church in Mic 7:8; or the infidel, who knows he must be laid in the dark and silent grave; the Heathen man, such as were many of the neighbours of Eliphaz, the Idumeans, among whom he dwelt, who were without the hope of a glorious resurrection; and which is an article of pure revelation, and which the idolatrous Heathen were strangers to, and so believed it not, or any deliverance from the grave; or this may respect the blackness of darkness, the outer darkness, the darkness of hell, which when once a wicked man is cast into, and enveloped with, he despairs, as he well may, of ever being delivered out of it:
and he is waited for of the sword; or by them that kill with the sword, as the Targum, who lie in wait for him, to rob him, and kill him; or in his own apprehension he seems to have nothing but drawn swords about him, or a sword hanging over his head, or the judgments of God ready to fall upon him for his sins; for he, having killed others with the sword, must expect to be killed with it himself.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A sound - Even when he feels no evil,…
A sound - Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears. Come upon him - Suddenly and unexpectedly.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears]…
Verse 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears] If he be an oppressor or tyrant, he can have no rest: he is full of suspicions that the cruelties he has exercised on others shall be one day exercised on himself; for even in his prosperity he may expect the destroyer to rush upon him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 15:21-22. A dreadful sound is in his ears…
Job 15:21-22. A dreadful sound is in his ears — Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears and expectations of it, from a consciousness of his own guilt, and a sense of God’s all-seeing eye and righteous judgment. In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him — In the most peaceable and prosperous time, he is not in safety, nor does he think himself to be so, but he is always fearing some one or other will injure him as he has injured others; and that some enemy will invade and destroy him suddenly and unexpectedly. He knows both heaven and earth are incensed against him; and that he has done nothing to make his peace with either, and, therefore, thinks every one that meets him will slay him. A guilty conscience represents to the sinner a flaming sword turning every way, and himself inevitably running upon it. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness — When he falls into trouble he despairs of deliverance, by reason of his guilty conscience. And he is waited for of the sword — Besides the calamity which is upon him, he is in constant expectation of greater. The sword is used for any grievous affliction.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain A dreadful sound is in his ears - Margin,…
A dreadful sound is in his ears - Margin, “A sound of fears.” He hears sudden, frightful sounds, and is alarmed. Or when he thinks himself safe, he is suddenly surprised. The enemy steals upon him, and in his fancied security he dies. This sentiment might be illustrated at almost any length by the mode of savage warfare in America, and by the sudden attacks which the American savage makes, in the silence of the night, on his unsuspecting foes. The Chaldee renders this, “the fear of the terrors in Gehenna are in his ears; when the righteous dwell in peace and eternal life, destruction comes upon him.”
In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him - When he supposes he is safe, and his affairs seem to be prosperous, then sudden destruction comes; see 1Th 5:3. The history of wicked people, who have encompassed themselves with wealth, and as they supposed with every thing necessary to happiness, and who have been suddenly cut off, would furnish all the instances which would be necessary to illustrate this sentiment of Eliphaz. See an exquisitely beautiful illustration of it in Psa 37:35-36 :
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I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a green bay-tree.
Yet he passed away, and lo he was not;
Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
So, also, in Psa 73:18-20 :
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places;
Thou castedst them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awaketh,
O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound,…
An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound, though it be in a time of peace ("prosperity"), when there is no real danger (Lev 26:36; Pro 28:1; Kg2 7:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. Dreadful sound — Sound of terrors.
21. Dreadful sound — Sound of terrors.
In prosperity — In (time of) peace. The words of Horace (Odes, Job_3:1) are in place: Post equitem sedet atra cura — Behind the knight sits dark care.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. A dreadful sound] A sound of terrors; he…
21. A dreadful sound] A sound of terrors; he continually thinks he hears the sound of coming destruction.
in prosperity the destroyer shall come] A picture of the wicked man’s anticipations.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A dreadful sound is in his ears; literally, a…
A dreadful sound is in his ears; literally, a sound of terrors. Fears of all kinds beset him, lest he should lose his prosperity. Sometimes they seem actually to sound in his ears. Prosper as he may, he feels that in prosperity the destroyer shall one day come upon him. "The destroyer" may be either the destroying angel, or the avenger of blood, or a robber-chief at the head of a band of marauders.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 15:21 Although Eliphaz generalized the terror that the wicked…
15:21 Although Eliphaz generalized the terror that the wicked experience, Job had undergone similar experiences (3:25; 6:4; 9:34; 13:11, 21; 23:15; 27:20; 30:15). Bildad (18:11, 14) and Zophar (20:25) spoke of more terror to come. • The Sabeans and Chaldeans were examples of the destroyer (1:13-17), but this could refer to any destructive agent (1:18-19). Destroyers might be agents of Satan (1 Cor 10:10; Rev 9:11) or divine agents that punish wickedness (Exod 12:23; 2 Sam 24:16; 2 Chr 32:21; Acts 12:23; Heb 11:28). Eliphaz meant the latter.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.