narrowness · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
afraid
יְֽ֭בַעֲתֻהוּYe.va.'a.tu.hu
H1204
to fear · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
prevail
תִּ֝תְקְפֵ֗הוּtit.ke.Fe.hu
H8630
to overpower · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
king
כְּמֶ֤לֶךְke.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
ready
עָתִ֬יד'a.Tid
H6264
prepared · adjective, masculine singular absolute
battle
לַכִּידֽוֹרla.ki.Dor
H3593
perhaps tumult · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Proverbs 6:11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
Proverbs 24:34 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
Job 6:2-4 Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!
Psalms 119:143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
Proverbs 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Isaiah 13:3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
Matthew 26:37-38 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Romans 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
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.…
prevail--break upon him suddenly and terribly, as a king, &c. (Pro 6:11).
John Gill on Job 15:24
Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid,.... Either his present troubles shall frighten him, they being so very dismal, terrible, and distressing, and make him fear that others were coming on, more dreadful and formidable; or those troubles he fears will be his portion hereafter, these terrify him beyond measure, even that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, that shall come upon every soul of man that doeth evil, Romans 2:8;
they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle; that is, trouble and anguish shall prevail against him; he will be no more able to resist them than a very inferior force, or even a single man, is able to resist a warlike king, attended with a…
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
"Like the general who succumbs to the first shock. He is daring, but he succumbs to temptation.
This means that pain and anguish catches [the wicked] in the middle, just like in a field where on one side a king threatens with inimical banners and on the other side pillaging robbers impend, so that his mind and soul cannot be at rest.
Ver. 24. Trouble shall make him afraid, straits shall besiege him, as a king ready to the battle. In all that the wicked man does, he is hedged in with anguish, and tribulation, and straits; in that his soul is confounded with anxiety and misgiving. One man secretly longs to seize another's goods by force, and he toils and strains in the thoughts of his heart, that he may not be found out. Another man, forsaking truth, makes up his mind to tell a lie, that he may deceive the mind of those that hear him; but what great labour it is to guard with sufficient heed, that his deceit itself may not be found out! For he sets before his eyes what answer may be made to him by those that know the truth, and with great effort of thought he makes out how by the appliances of falsehood he may surpass the evidences of truth. He cloaks himself about on this side and on that, and against that wherein he might have been found out, he looks about for an answer resembling truth, whereas if he had been minded to tell the truth, assuredly he might have done it without pains. For the path of truth is smooth, and the road of falsehood grievous. And hence it is said by the Prophet, They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and wearied themselves to commit iniquity. Therefore it is well said, Trouble shall make him afraid, and straits besiege him; in that in himself he is undone in the toilsomeness of fear, who forsakes the way of truth, which is the companion of security. And he is rightly compared to a king prepared for battle, seeing that in that very evil that he does he is at once alarmed and presses on; at once made to tremble by conscience, and to pant from desire; fears, and swells high; is scared with misgivings, and lifts up his spirit in audacity. Moreover, we are to know that 'a king who is prepared for battle' is so apprehensive against the enemy, that he also fears for that very army which he is leading, lest it should be seduced, lest by the desertion of his soldiers he be laid open to the darts of the enemy. And so 'the wicked man is besieged with straits, like a king ready to the battle;' in that whilst practising false things and uttering false words, he dreads lest he should lose his own soldiers; i.e. the appliances of falsehoods; and lie exposed to the darts of truth, if it chance that that be lacking to him, which he might have to oppose on the side of…
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions Of The Wicked, The · Produce slavish fear — Produce slavish fear
Conscience · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Cowardice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fear, Unholy · Is described as: Overwhelming — Is described as: Overwhelming
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).
They wander around, saying, “Where can I find bread?”: Like the wicked (15:20), Job either experienced hunger (see 15:27) or (following the Greek Old Testament) had been “appointed to be food for a vulture,” which would parallel “marked for the sword” (15:22).
Rashi on Job 15:24
it overpowers him The anguish is stronger than him and it will prevail over him.
like a king destined for the inferno Heb. לכידור. I have not found anything similar to it, but it may be interpreted by means of the interchangeable letters, “resh” with “dalet,” like (Gen. 10:3), “Ashkenaz and Riphath” in the Torah, and in Chronicles (I, 1:6): “Ashkenaz and Diphath;” and similarly (Gen. 10: 4). “Kittim and Dodanim” Here too, לַכִּידוֹר is equivalent to לַכִּידוֹד, to the king who is destined to burn (ליקוד) in the fire of Gehinnom; i.e., Sennacherib, about whom the prophet prophesied (Isa. 30: 33): “For Tophteh has been set up from yesterday, that too has been prepared for the king,” to burn h…
