Bible Strands
Job 27:20
Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends during his final speech, describing the sudden ruin awaiting the prosperous wicked. He speaks this immediately after declaring that his own righteousness will remain intact until his breath leaves him.
The words — The Hebrew תַּשִּׂיגֵ֣הוּ (ta.si.Ge./hu) literally means "it overtakes him," while סוּפָֽה (su.Fah) denotes "a storm-wind." The text pairs these with בַּלָּה֑וֹת (ba.la.Hot), "sudden terrors," and כַּמַּיִם (Kha.ma.yim), "like waters," to describe an unpreventable assault.
The thread — This imagery of sudden terror and sweeping destruction recurs in Job 15:21 and Job 18:11, where dread surrounds the wicked. The motif of divine judgment striking at night echoes the plague described in Exodus 12:29.
Why it lands — The text states that wealth and security vanish instantly when judgment arrives, leaving no time for preparation. It demands recognition that human prosperity offers no protection against sudden, sovereign reckoning.
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
Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Cross-references
- Job 15:21 Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.
- Job 18:11 Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.
- Exodus 12:29 Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.
- 2 Kings 19:35 And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Job 20:23 When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
- Job 21:18 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
- Job 22:16 They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
- Job 34:20 They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.
- Psalms 18:4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.