Job 7:14
in Job 7then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Then thou scarest me with dreams, And terrifiest me through visions:
KJV
Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
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This verse in Job 7
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThen Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions. But lest anyone should be at pains to make out these words after the literal sense, it is of great importance to find out in how many ways the mind is affected by images from dreams. For sometimes dreams are engendered of fulness or emptiness of the belly, sometimes of illusion, sometimes of illusion and thought combined, sometimes of revelation, while sometimes they are engendered of imagination, thought, and revelation together.
This site's exposition
When I think my bed will comfort me
on Job 7:13-16
Even sleep is taken from Job: when he thinks "my bed will comfort me," then "You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions". The line "I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body" is the book's plainest statement of a wish to die.
This site's exposition
then You frighten me with dreams
Job credits the terrors to God, though the reader knows from chapter 2 that Satan holds leave to strike him. Clarke takes the dreams as Satan's work, permitted to haunt Job's sleep until he feared to close his eyes. Eliphaz had boasted of a night vision in Job 4:13.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
These cures too could not help him, because at the time when he should have used these remedies, other impediments like terrible dreams and horrible visions were present in him which disturbed him. To express this he continues, "Then you will frighten me with dreams," …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Then thou scarest me with dreams,....
There we promise ourselves some repose, when we are fatigued with labour, pain, or traveling: " My bed shall comfort me, and my couch shall ease my complaint. Sleep will for a time give me some relief;" it usually does so; it is appointed for that end; many a time it has eased us, and we have awaked refreshed, and with new vigour.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thou sparest me with dreams - There is no doubt that Satan was permitted to haunt his imagination with dreadful dreams and terrific appearances; so that, as soon as he fell asleep, he was suddenly roused and alarmed by those appalling images. He needed rest by sleep, but was afraid to close his eyes because of the horrid images which were presented to his imagination. Could there be a state more deplorable than this?
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Then thou scarest me - This is an address to God. He regarded him as the source of his sorrows, and he expresses his sense of this in language indeed very beautiful, but far from reverence. With dreams - see Job 7:4. A similar expression occurs in Ovid: Ut puto, cam requies medicinaque publica curae, Somnus adest, soliris nox venit orba malis, Somnia me terrent. veros imitantia casus, Et vigilant sensus in mea damna mei. Do Ponto, Lib. i. Eleg. 2. And terrifiest me through visions - See the notes at Job 4:13. This refers to the visions of the fancy, or to frightful appearances in the night. The belief of such night-visions was common in the early ages, and Job regarded them as under the direction of God, and as being designed to alarm him.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
that my couch shall bear my speech The couch upon which I sleep at night will bear my trouble somewhat, and I will be able to restrain my speech.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְחִתַּתַּ֥נִי | vechittatani | and you will dismay me | H2865 → | 52 times |
| בַחֲלֹמ֑וֹת | vachalomot | by dreams | H2472 → | 65 times |
| וּֽמֵחֶזְיֹנ֥וֹת | umechezyonot | and from visions | H2384 → | 9 times |
| תְּבַעֲתַֽנִּי׃ | tevaatani | you will terrify me | H1204 → | 16 times |
וְחִתַּתַּ֥נִיand you will dismay me
vechittataniH2865 →52 times
בַחֲלֹמ֑וֹתby dreams
vachalomotH2472 →65 times
וּֽמֵחֶזְיֹנ֥וֹתand from visions
umechezyonotH2384 →9 times
תְּבַעֲתַֽנִּי׃you will terrify me
tevaataniH1204 →16 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
Daniel 2:1In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled his spirit, and sleep escaped him.
it leads to
- Daniel 4:5
I had a dream, and it frightened me; while in my bed, the images and visions in my mind alarmed me.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 4:5
Through
Genesis 41:8In the morning his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
it leads to
- Daniel 4:7
When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, and they could not interpret it for me.
- Exodus 7:22
But the magicians of Egypt did the same things by their magic arts. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.
- Daniel 1:20
In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.
- Daniel 4:7
Through
Matthew 27:19While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered terribly in a dream today because of Him.”
it leads to
- Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of…
- Proverbs 29:1
A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- 1 Peter 2:22
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”
- Matthew 27:24
When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he…
- Zechariah 9:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; 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.