Job 39:22

He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job addresses his friends in a poetic discourse on creation, describing the warhorse’s behavior between verses detailing its charging and its battle gear.

The words — יִשְׂחַק (yisChak) translates literally as “it laughs,” and יָשׁוּב (yaShuv) means “it turns back.”

The thread — The motif of fearless confidence appears in Job 39:18, where the horse laughs at the rider, and Job 41:33, which describes a creature devoid of fear.

Why it lands — It presents the warhorse’s unflinching advance toward danger as a concrete example of created boldness, demanding recognition of God’s design in nature’s fiercest creatures.

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

יִשְׂחַ֣קyis.Chakit laughs לְ֭פַחַדLe./fa.chadto/ fear וְלֹ֣אve./Lo'and/ not יֵחָ֑תye.Chatit is dismayed וְלֹֽא־ve./lo'-and/ not יָ֝שׁ֗וּבya.Shuvit turns back מִפְּנֵי־mi./pe.nei-from/ before חָֽרֶב׃Cha.reva sword

King James Version

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.

Cross-references

Job 39:16 She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.
Job 39:18 Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
Job 41:33 Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!