a (sudden) alarm (properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
sound
קוֹלkol-
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
ears
בְּאָזְנָ֑יוbe.'a.ze.Nav
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
prosperity
בַּ֝שָּׁל֗וֹםba.sha.Lom
H7965
safe · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
destroyer
שׁוֹדֵ֥דsho.Ded
H7703
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
come
יְבוֹאֶֽנּוּye.vo.'E.nu
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not…
Leviticus 26:36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken…
1 Corinthians 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Job 1:13-19 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
Job 20:5-7 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Job 20:22-25 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
Job 27:20 Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 15:17–end
Eliphaz, having reproved Job for his answers, here comes to maintain his own thesis, upon which he built his censure of Job. His opinion is that those who are wicked are certainly miserable, whence he would infer that those who are miserable are certainly wicked, and that therefore Job was so. Observe,
I. His solemn preface to this discourse, in which he bespeaks Job's attention, which he had little reason to expect, he having given so little heed to and put so little value upon what Job had said (Job 15:17): "I will show thee that which is worth hearing, and not reason, as thou dost, with unprofitable talk." Thus apt are men, when they condemn the reasonings of others, to commend their own.…
An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound, though it be in a time of peace ("prosperity"), when there is no real danger (Lev 26:36; Pro 28:1; Kg2 7:6).
John Gill on Job 15:21
A dreadful sound is in his ears,.... Or "a voice", or "sound of fears" (t), of what causes fears; and which are either imaginary; sometimes wicked men, fear when there is no cause or occasion for it; they fancy an enemy at their heels, and flee, when none pursues them; they are a "Magormissabib", or "terror on every side", a fear to themselves and all about them, Jeremiah 20:3; like Cain, who fancied and feared that every man that met him would slay him Genesis 4:13; such is the effect of a guilty conscience: or real; and these either extraordinary sounds, such as were made in the ears of the Syrian host, which caused them to flee, and leave their tents, and all their substance in them, 2 Ki…
20 So long as the ungodly liveth he suffereth,
And numbered years are reserved for the tyrant.
21 Terrors sound in his ears;
In time of peace the destroyer cometh upon him.
22 He believeth not in a return from darkness,
And he is selected for the sword.
23 He roameth about after bread: "Ah! where is it?"
He knoweth that a dark day is near at hand for him.
24 Trouble and anguish terrify him;
They seize him as a king ready to the battle.
All the days of the ungodly he (the ungodly) is sensible of pain. רשׁע stands, like Elohim in Gen 9:6, by the closer definition; here however so, that this defining ends after the manner of a premiss, and is begun by הוּא after the manner of a conclusion. מתחו…
The Church Fathers
"When they believe themselves in peace. It seems as if Job thought he was in this state.
"Just when he seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come." Here Job learns that war comes from above, and there will be no change in his misfortunes.
Ver. 21. A dreadful sound is alway in his ears, and when there is peace, he suspecteth plots. But there is nothing more happy than simplicity of heart, in that in proportion as it shews forth innocency towards others, there is nothing it dreads to meet with from others. For it has its simplicity as a kind of citadel of strength, nor is it suspicious of undergoing what it has no remembrance of having itself done. Whence it is well said by Solomon, In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. Who also says again, A secure mind is like a perpetual feast. For the mere repose of security is like the continuance of refreshment. Whereas, on the other hand, the evil mind is always set in pains and labours, since it is either contriving mischiefs that it may bring down, or fearing lest these be brought down upon it by others; and whatever plot it hatches against neighbours, it is afraid of being hatched by neighbours against itself. It is on every side full of suspicions, on every side full of alarms. Everyone that occurs to mind is supposed to be making out things hostile to him, and so he, to whom the repose of security is wanting, has surely 'a dreadful sound in his ears' always. And it often happens that his neighbour, whoever he be, speaks to him with a single intention, and designs nothing hostile, but 'when there is peace, he suspecteth plots;' in that he, who is always dealing craftily, calculates that there is not single dealing towards himself. And whereas it is written, When the wicked man cometh into the pit of sinners, he contemneth, he being encompassed with the darkness of his iniquity henceforth despairs of light.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Conscience · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fear, Unholy · Is described as: Overwhelming — Is described as: Overwhelming
Happiness · .Often interrupted by — .Often interrupted by
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Often interrupted by judgments — Often interrupted by judgments
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Although Eliphaz generalized the terror that the wicked experience, Job had undergone similar experiences (3:25; 6:4; 9:34; 13:11, 21; 23:15; 27:20; 30:15). Bildad (18:11, 14) and Zophar (20:25) spoke of more terror to come. • The Sabeans and Chaldeans were examples of the destroyer (1:13-17), but this could refer to any destructive agent (1:18-19). Destroyers might be agents of Satan (1 Cor 10:10; Rev 9:11) or divine agents that punish wickedness (Exod 12:23; 2 Sam 24:16; 2 Chr 32:21; Acts 12:23; Heb 11:28). Eliphaz meant the latter.
Rashi on Job 15:21
The voice of terrors is in his ears saying that the time of his retribution has arrived.
in peace And when he lives in peace, then the robber will come upon him.
