What Does Job 18:11 Mean in the King James?
Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Terror closes in from every side, then scatters him, the verse moves from enclosure to disorientation.
THE MEANING
Fear can occupy the whole field of vision and press the body into motion. In this image, no direction feels safe and there is no settled footing.
THE ROOT
בִּעֲתוּהוּ
biʿatuhu
GROWS FROM
ב־ע־ת
b-ʿ-t
to startle, alarm, or terrify
“make him afraid” in this verse is biʿatuhu. The act of terrifying and the noun for terrors grow from the same root. English separates the action from its result, while Hebrew holds together the force that terrifies and the dread it names.
ALSO GROWS
tevaʿatanni: you terrify me
תְּבַעֲתַנִּי
Job 7:14 uses this root for terror that seizes a person through dreams and visions.
biʿutekha: your terrors
בִּעוּתֶיךָ
Psalm 88:16 turns the same root into a noun: what terrifies becomes the terrors that cut the speaker off.
וְהֱפִיצֻהוּ
wĕhēp̄îṣuhû
GROWS FROM
פוץ
pûṣ
to scatter or disperse
“drive” in this verse is wĕhēp̄îṣuhû. This root carries the image of scattering, adding a sense of lost direction to the movement in the verse. With terrors all around, the person is not simply startled; he is driven out of any settled place.
ALSO GROWS
yafutsu: let them be scattered
יָפֻצוּ
Numbers 10:35 uses this root for enemies being scattered, showing movement away from cohesion or a gathered place.
nafuts: be scattered
נָפוּץ
Genesis 11:4 uses the root for people dispersed across the earth, echoing the loss of a single place to stand.
THE PATTERN
Fear becomes total when it occupies every direction and hour and unsettles the body’s sense of steadiness.
They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.THE THREAD
Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.Job’s verb translated “make him afraid” comes from ב־ע־ת (b-ʿ-t); the Psalm’s word for “terrors,” בִּעוּתֶיךָ (biʿutekha), comes from that same root. Hebrew keeps the act of being terrified and the terrors themselves in one word-family, a connection the English wording conceals.
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