Bible Strands
Job 23:16
God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks these words to himself amid his suffering, immediately after noting his fear before God's presence and before declaring his inability to be silenced by darkness.
The words — The Hebrew הֵרַךְ (he.Rakh, "he has made faint") and לִבִּי (li.B/i, "my heart") describe the physical weakening of inner resolve, while הִבְהִילָֽ/נִי (hiv.hi.La./ni, "he has terrified me") paired with שַׁדַּי (sha.Dai, "Almighty") records the direct cause of Job's dread.
The thread — The text's description of a melting heart aligns with Psalms 22:14, and the tension between divine terror and human endurance mirrors the battle command in Deuteronomy 20:3 not to be fainthearted.
Why it lands — The verse records that divine encounter can actively strip away human confidence, requiring the reader to face the raw reality of suffering without assuming immediate resolution.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
Cross-references
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Job 27:2 “As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
- Deuteronomy 20:3 saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them.
- Psalms 88:16 Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
- Isaiah 6:5 Then 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 of Hosts.”
- Ruth 1:20 “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.
- Isaiah 57:16 For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me—the breath of life I have made.
- Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Jeremiah 51:46 Do not let your heart grow faint, and do not be afraid when the rumor is heard in the land; for a rumor will come one year—and then another the next year—of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.