to tremble inwardly (or palpitate) · verb, niphal imperfect, 1st person common singular
presence
מִפָּנָ֣יוmi.pa.Nav
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
consider
אֶ֝תְבּוֹנֵ֗ן'et.bo.Nen
H995
to separate mentally (or distinguish) · verb, hithpael imperfect, 1st person common singular
afraid
וְאֶפְחַ֥דve.'ef.Chad
H6342
to be startled (by a sudden alarm) · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common 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
Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.
Job 31:23 For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.
Psalms 77:3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine afflicti…
Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might res…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 23:13–end
Some make Job to complain here that God dealt unjustly and unfairly with him in proceeding to punish him without the least relenting or relaxation, though he had such incontestable evidences to produce of his innocency. I am loth to think holy Job would charge the holy God with iniquity; but his complaint is indeed bitter and peevish, and he reasons himself into a sort of patience per force, which he cannot do without reflecting upon God as dealing hardly with him, but he must bear it because he cannot help it; the worst he says is that God deals unaccountably with him.
I. He lays down good truths, and truths which were capable of a good improvement, Job 23:13, Job 23:14. 1. That God's couns…
God's decrees, impossible to be resisted, and leaving us in the dark as to what may come next, are calculated to fill the mind with holy awe [BARNES].
John Gill on Job 23:15
Therefore am I troubled at his presence,.... Not at his gracious presence, which he wanted, and every good man desires; but at his appearance as an enemy, as he apprehended him, laying and continuing his afflictive hand upon him, and indeed at his appearance as a Judge to try his cause; for though he had most earnestly desired it, yet when he thought of the sovereignty of God, and the immutability of his counsels, and of his perfect knowledge of all things; and he not knowing what he had with him, and to bring out against him, when he came to the point, might be troubled and shrink back, see Psalm 77:3;
when I consider, I am afraid of him: when he considered his terrible majesty, his sovere…
14 For He accomplisheth that which is appointed for me,
And much of a like kind is with Him.
15 Therefore I am troubled at His presence;
If I consider it, I am afraid of Him.
16 And God hath caused my heart to be dejected,
And the Almighty hath put me to confusion;
17 For I have not been destroyed before darkness,
And before my countenance, which thick darkness covereth.
Now it is the will of God, the absolute, which has all at once turned against him, the innocent (Job 23:13); for what He has decreed against him (חקּי) He also brings to a complete fulfilment (השׁלים, as e.g., Isa 44:26); and the same troubles as those which he already suffers, God has still more abundantly decreed for him,…
The Church Fathers
"Therefore I will be troubled in his presence. It does not matter if I am troubled, provided my thoughts warn me against the coming judgment, where everything will be manifested before him.
Therefore am I troubled at His presence; when I consider I am afraid of Him. He is rightly 'troubled at the presence of the Lord,' who sets before the view of his eyes the terribleness of His Majesty, and is throughly shaken by dread of His Righteousness, whilst he sees that he is not fit to render his accounts if he be judged with severity. Now it is rightly said, When I consider I am afraid of Him, because the force of the Divine visitation when a man considers little, He dreads but little, and in this life is as it were secure, in proportion as he is a stranger to the consideration of the interior strictness. For the righteous are ever turning back into the secret chamber of the heart, contemplating the power of the hidden strictness, presenting themselves to the judgment of the interior Majesty, that they may one day be the more secure, in proportion as they would not make themselves secure here so long as they lived. For when the minds of evildoers refuse to consider what they have to fear, sooner or later by rejoicing they are brought to that, which they do not by fearing in any way escape. But see in regard to blessed Job, we know that he was devoted to frequent sacrifices to God, that he was given up to acts of hospitality, to the necessities of the poor, that he was humble towards his own dependants even, kind towards those that opposed him, and yet he received such numberless scourges, nor now became secure amidst them, but still entertained fear, still thinking of the power of the Divine strictness he is made to tremble. What then shall we miserable creatures say? what shall we sinners say, if he so fears, who so acted? But let him make known whether the weight of this great fear he has from himself.
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
Doubting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
terrified in his presence: See Pss 77:3; 88:16; 119:120. • Job had complained earlier of being plunged into darkness (Job 19:8); Eliphaz (15:22; 22:1) and Bildad (18:6, 18) ascribed this fate to the wicked.
Rashi on Job 23:15
Therefore Since He does not requite man according to his ways.
I am startled by Him and when I ponder His ways, I am frightened of Him.
