What Does Job 7:14 Mean in the King James?
Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
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
The two fear-verbs move from dismay that shatters to sudden terror, making even what you see in sleep a site of fear.
THE MEANING
In this verse, sleep offers no shelter: dreams frighten you, and visions make terror immediate. The one addressed as God is experienced as the source of that fear, and the verse leaves the distress fully exposed.
THE ROOT
חִתַּתַּנִי
ḥittatannî
GROWS FROM
חתת
ḥ-t-t
To shatter or be dismayed; in this form, to cause dismay or terror.
“scarest” in this verse is ḥittatannî. The root can describe both being dismayed and the force that brings dismay. The verse’s first word for fear presents it as something that strikes and unsettles you from within.
ALSO GROWS
ʾal-tēḥat: A command not to be dismayed.
אַל־תֵּחָת
The same root names the inner state this verse gives voice to: being shaken by fear.
maḥittāh: Terror or an object of dread.
מַחִתָּה
The root also names what causes the dismay, linking inward distress with the force that strikes it.
תְּבַעֲתַנִּי
təvaʿatannî
GROWS FROM
בעת
b-ʿ-t
To startle or seize with sudden terror.
“terrifiest” in this verse is təvaʿatannî. This root gives the second verb the feel of terror arriving upon someone. Beside the first verb, it makes fear feel both unsettling and sudden.
ALSO GROWS
bəʿūteḵā: Terrors experienced as coming upon the speaker.
בְּעֻתֶיךָ
The same root can name terror as an ongoing experience, illuminating how fear fills the speaker’s inner life.
ûviʿatattû: An evil spirit from the LORD troubled or terrified Saul.
וּבִעֲתַתּוּ
Here the root describes terror acting upon a person, as it does in the direct address of Job 7:14.
חֶזְיֹנוֹת
ḥezyōnōt
GROWS FROM
חזה
ḥ-z-h
To see, look, or behold.
The word for visions grows from the verb for seeing and beholding. English can make a vision sound abstract; the Hebrew keeps it close to what appears before your sight, and here that seeing carries fear.
ALSO GROWS
maḥăzeh: A vision or sight received.
מַחֲזֶה
This branch names what is seen, placing the verse’s visions within the same family of sight.
ḥōzeh: A person who sees or receives a vision.
חֹזֶה
The same root names both the act of seeing and the one who sees, making the visions in Job part of a living encounter with what appears.
THE PATTERN
Fear can become an inward force that reshapes what is seen, felt, and endured.
My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.THE THREAD
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;Job 33:15 repeats the pairing of dream and night vision, using the same Hebrew word family for vision, חֶזְיוֹן (ḥezyōn, vision), rooted in חזה (ḥ-z-h), to see or behold. The shared root connects what appears in the night with both terror here and the possibility of divine speech there.
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