Job 23:16
in Job 23God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For God hath made my heart faint, And the Almighty hath terrified me;
KJV
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
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This verse in Job 23
Commentary
9 notes on this verseFor God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me. By divine gift the heart of the righteous man is said to be made soft, in that it is penetrated with the fear of the judgment from Above. For that it is soft, which is capable of being penetrated, but that is hard, which cannot be penetrated. Whence it is said by Solomon, Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
This site's exposition
Therefore I am terrified in His presence
on Job 23:15-17
The confidence of verse 10 gives way. Dread returns: "Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider this, I fear Him", and "the Almighty has terrified me". Gill notes the shape of the chapter, a peak of confidence, closing in the same fear it opened with.
This site's exposition
God has made my heart faint
Barnes reads the faint heart as the loss of strength, and he finds its cause in Job's thought of God's plan and power. Gregory takes the soft heart as one opened to the fear of judgment. Henry calls it a grievous softness that dreads every coming thing.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
This unexpected disaster, he says, did not happen according to human logic. I discern that this blow comes from the hand of God. And he is right in speaking of the darkness that "covers my face," because this darkness is not ordinary darkness but is of his own dejection.
The Medieval Church1 voice
He expresses the cause of this anxious fear in the blow of God he has experienced against himself, and so he says, "God softened my heart," as though dissolving it in liquid, by taking away the strength of security. "And the Almighty threw me into …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
There is a gracious softness, like that of Josiah, whose heart was tender, and trembled at the word of God; but this is meant of a grievous softness which apprehends every thing that is present to be pressing and every thing future to be threatening.
For God maketh my heart soft,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
For God maketh my heart soft - Prostrates my strength, deprives me of courage, so that I sink beneath my burden, and I am troubled at the thought of the Almighty, the self-sufficient and eternal Being.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For God maketh my heart soft - That is, “faint.” He takes away my strength; compare the notes at Isa 7:4. This effect was produced on Job by the contemplation of the eternal plan and the power of God.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְ֭אֵל | veel | and God | H410 → | 241 times |
| הֵרַ֣ךְ | herakh | he has made faint | H7401 → | |
| לִבִּ֑י | libi | heart my | H3820 → | 595 times |
| וְ֝שַׁדַּ֗י | veshadai | and [the] Almighty | H7706 → | 48 times |
| הִבְהִילָֽנִי׃ | hivhilani | he has terrified me | H926 → | 39 times |
וְ֭אֵלand God
veelH410 →241 times
הֵרַ֣ךְhe has made faint
herakhH7401 →
לִבִּ֑יheart my
libiH3820 →595 times
וְ֝שַׁדַּ֗יand [the] Almighty
veshadaiH7706 →48 times
הִבְהִילָֽנִי׃he has terrified me
hivhilaniH926 →39 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 6:5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD…
it leads to
- Luke 5:8–9
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- James 3:6–10
The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on…
- Jeremiah 9:3–8
“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 1:6
“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”
- Matthew 12:34–37
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
- Luke 5:8–9
Through
Psalms 22:14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
it leads to
- Psalms 31:10
For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.
- Daniel 5:6
his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
- Job 30:16
And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
- Psalms 31:10
Where this verse is studied
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 23:16-17; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.