Bible Strands
Job 3:25
For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job speaks from his own suffering, describing his inner state after the loss of his family, wealth, and health. He voices his turmoil directly to God and himself during the opening chapter of his lament.
The words — The verse centers on פַּחַד (pachad, "fear") and יָגֹר (yagor, "dread"). Job declares that the very objects of his fear and dread have arrived and come upon him.
The thread — This pattern of anticipated terror becoming reality appears in Job 30:15, where terrors are turned loose against him, and mirrors Job 31:23, where calamity from God terrifies him. The routine of preemptive purification in Job 1:5 highlights the contrast between his former protective rituals and his current helplessness.
Why it lands — The text asserts that dread does not prevent the feared event but accompanies it. A reader must confront the reality that religious routine cannot control future suffering and must face the present trouble without false assurance.
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 the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Cross-references
- Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Job 30:15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
- Job 31:23 For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.