Overcoming Fear: What the Bible Says About Fear

but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”

Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

They heard the LORD God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.”

The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.

It will happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me, but they will save you alive.

Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you.”

Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some fell there. Those who remained fled to the hills.

After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.

See now, your servant has found favour in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”

Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’

She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Don’t let me see the death of the child.” She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”

Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

The LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”

He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”

Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.”

He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.

Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’

The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, along with the flocks, the herds, and the camels, into two companies.

He said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.”

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and strike me and the mothers with the children.

You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants.

Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, amongst the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”

They travelled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob.

When she was in hard labour, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Judah said, “Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven’t found her.”

He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”

But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”

Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’

By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.”

He put them all together into custody for three days.

Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.

He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

“The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

The men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, “Because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time, we’re brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, attack us, and seize us as slaves, along with our donkeys.”

He said, “Peace be to you. Don’t be afraid. Your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money.” He brought Simeon out to them.

Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’

For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?” His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails.”

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won’t be desolate.”

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”

Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph.

He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and escape out of the land.”

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel.

But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.

Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.”

Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it.

Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”

Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”

On the way at a lodging place, the LORD met Moses and wanted to kill him.

They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword.”

The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!”

Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, “Behold, the children of Israel haven’t listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, when I have uncircumcised lips?”

Moses said before the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh listen to me?”

Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.

Now therefore command that all of your livestock and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. The hail will come down on every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn’t brought home, and they will die.”’”

Those who feared the LORD’s word amongst the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses.

Whoever didn’t respect the LORD’s word left his servants and his livestock in the field.

So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear the LORD God.”

The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were very grievous. Before them there were no such locusts as they, nor will there ever be again.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.

Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We are all dead men.”

When Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us out of Egypt?

Isn’t this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you have seen today.

He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians!”

Israel saw the great work which the LORD did to the Egyptians, and the people feared the LORD; and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Who is like you, LORD, amongst the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, LORD, until the people you have purchased pass over.

and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

The people were thirsty for water there; so the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

Moses cried to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.

No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain.”

On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

All of Mount Sinai smoked, because the LORD descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

The LORD said to him, “Go down! You shall bring Aaron up with you, but don’t let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.”

All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.

They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”

Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.”

The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.

Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

The appearance of the LORD’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”

Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.”

When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.

You shall stay at the door of the Tent of Meeting day and night seven days, and keep the LORD’s command, that you don’t die: for so I am commanded.”

Fire came out from before the LORD, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat upon the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

and the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.

“‘You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

“‘You shall rise up before the grey head and honour the face of the elderly; and you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

Whoever does any kind of work in that same day, I will destroy that person from amongst his people.

You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live amongst you.

You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

“‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.

“‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.

“When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp moves forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it; but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die. The sons of Kohath shall carry these things belonging to the Tent of Meeting.

but they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die.”

With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the LORD’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.

But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”

They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.

There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!

Why does the LORD bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”

They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.”

But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The LORD’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.

They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”

He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins!”

But if the LORD makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised the LORD.”

As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart.

The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods.

So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from amongst the assembly.

All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”

Fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men who offered the incense.

When the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they looked towards the Tent of Meeting. Behold, the cloud covered it, and the LORD’s glory appeared.

“Get away from amongst this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces.

The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone!

Everyone who keeps approaching the LORD’s tabernacle, dies! Will we all perish?”

Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.

Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?

Moab was very afraid of the people, because they were many. Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this multitude will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.

He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt. Behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they are staying opposite me.

Please come now therefore, and curse this people for me; for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

‘Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the earth. Now, come curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.’”

He took up his parable, and said, “Alas, who shall live when God does this?

Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them?

Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed.”

You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’”

Then I said to you, “Don’t be terrified. Don’t be afraid of them.

Command the people, saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful.

Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

You shall not fear them; for the LORD your God himself fights for you.”

the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”

You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burnt with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

(I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the LORD’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying,

When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the LORD our God’s voice any more, then we shall die.

For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?

Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

that you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.

You shall fear the LORD your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.

for the LORD your God amongst you is a jealous God, lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today.

If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”

you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

You shall not be scared of them; for the LORD your God is amongst you, a great and awesome God.

You shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”

I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.

So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.

No man will be able to stand before you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.

You shall walk after the LORD your God, fear him, keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him, and cling to him.

All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this amongst you.

You shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place which he chooses to cause his name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

All the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

This is according to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again the LORD my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.”

When a prophet speaks in the LORD’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil amongst you.

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.”

All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.

how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God.

All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be afraid of you.

You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.

so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.

The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword amongst all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.

The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand,

a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favour to the young.

If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD your God,

then the LORD will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.

He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you.

Amongst these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.

Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.

In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see.

Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them, for the LORD your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

The LORD himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.”

Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, learn, fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law,

and that their children, who have not known, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the grey-haired man.

were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted; the LORD has not done all this.’”

Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”

Jericho’s king sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land.”

She said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

On that day, the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD’s hand is mighty, and that you may fear the LORD your God forever.’”

When all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.

Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in.

Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.”

So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai.

The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan!

Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies?

For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”

The LORD said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.

When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.”

They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how the LORD your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.

The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, saying, “Don’t abandon your servants! Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country have gathered together against us.”

The LORD said to Joshua, “Don’t fear them, for I have delivered them into your hands. Not a man of them will stand before you.”

These five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.

Joshua said to them, “Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for the LORD will do this to all your enemies against whom you fight.”

When Jabin king of Hazor heard of it, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph,

They went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, even as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots.

Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed the LORD my God.

The children of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.”

“If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, “What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.”’ So your children might make our children cease from fearing the LORD.

“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve the LORD.

They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn’t open the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their lord had fallen down dead on the floor.

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

The LORD confused Sisera, all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled away on his feet.

However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don’t be afraid.” He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

The mountains quaked at the LORD’s presence, even Sinai at the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travellers walked through byways.

Why did you sit amongst the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart.

Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks.

I said to you, “I am the LORD your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not listened to my voice.’”

The LORD’s angel came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.

Gideon saw that he was the LORD’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Because I have seen the LORD’s angel face to face!”

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had spoken to him. Because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, but he did it by night.

Gideon said to God, “Don’t let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”

Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp.

He said to Jether his firstborn, “Get up and kill them!” But the youth didn’t draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was yet a youth.

Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.”

Gaal spoke again and said, “Behold, people are coming down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.”

Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate.

When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith.

But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled there, and shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower.

Then he called hastily to the young man, his armour bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.”

The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever a fugitive of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No;”

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name;

For when the flame went up towards the sky from off the altar, the LORD’s angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife watched; and they fell on their faces to the ground.

Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”

Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and his mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared at him.

On the seventh day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Isn’t that so?”

They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

He was very thirsty, and called on the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light; then we will kill him.”

The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard amongst us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”

The children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain wicked fellows, surrounded the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!”

But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to the sky.

The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that disaster had come on them.

Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness, but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the middle of it.

They turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon. They gleaned five thousand men of them in the highways, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck two thousand men of them.

But six hundred men turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the rock of Rimmon four months.

At midnight, the man was startled and turned himself; and behold, a woman lay at his feet.

Now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people knows that you are a worthy woman.

Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the LORD’s house. Samuel was afraid to show Eli the vision.

The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” They said, “Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing before.

Woe to us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for God’s ark. When the man came into the city and told about it, all the city cried out.

When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, “What does the noise of this tumult mean?” The man hurried, and came and told Eli.

The man said to Eli, “I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.” He said, “How did the matter go, my son?”

About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she didn’t answer, neither did she regard it.

Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not stay with us, for his hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.”

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath.” They carried the ark of the God of Israel there.

So they sent God’s ark to Ekron. As God’s ark came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel here to us, to kill us and our people.”

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly panic throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the LORD’s ark, he struck fifty thousand and seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? To whom shall he go up from us?”

When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?”

He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen; but when they looked for him, he could not be found.

Therefore they asked of the LORD further, “Is there yet a man to come here?” The LORD answered, “Behold, he has hidden himself amongst the baggage.”

Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”

Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and spoke these words in the ears of the people, then all the people lifted up their voice and wept.

He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, then sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, “Whoever doesn’t come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.” The dread of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man.

If you will fear the LORD, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of the LORD your God.

“Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes.

Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain; and you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the LORD’s sight, in asking for a king.”

So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day. Then all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.

All the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king.”

Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet don’t turn away from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.

Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel: thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth Aven.

When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were distressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in tombs, and in pits.

Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn’t come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines assembled themselves together at Michmash,

therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven’t entreated the favour of the LORD.’ I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt offering.”

Both of them revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines; and the Philistines said, “Behold, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves!”

There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and amongst all the people; the garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so there was an exceedingly great trembling.

The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away and scattered.

Likewise all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.

The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, “Cursed is the man who eats any food until it is evening, and I am avenged of my enemies.” So none of the people tasted food.

When the people had come to the forest, behold, honey was dripping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

Then one of the people answered, and said, “Your father directly commanded the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed is the man who eats food today.’” So the people were faint.

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honour me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.”

Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites here to me!” Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’

Samuel did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”

Saul’s servants said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.

A champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span went out.

When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were terrified.

The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter, and will make his father’s house tax-free in Israel.”

Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have credited David with ten thousands, and they have only credited me with thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?”

Saul watched David from that day and forward.

Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and had departed from Saul.

When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.

Saul was even more afraid of David; and Saul was David’s enemy continually.

An evil spirit from the LORD was on Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing music with his hand.

Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence; and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.

He also stripped off his clothes. He also prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also amongst the prophets?”

David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said to Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

David swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favour in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved;’ but truly as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”

David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.

If he says, ‘It is well,’ your servant shall have peace; but if he is angry, then know that evil is determined by him.

Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?”

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?”

David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

Saul heard that David was discovered, with the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.

Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob; and they all came to the king.

Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?”

Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. You will be safe with me.”

David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.” The LORD said, “He will come down.”

David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the woods.

He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.”

Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.

He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.”

Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master and against all his house, for he is such a worthless fellow that one can’t speak to him.”

In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.”

David saved neither man nor woman alive to bring them to Gath, saying, “Lest they should tell about us, saying, ‘David did this, and this has been his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’”

When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.

Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, “Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.”

The woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?”

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!”

The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! What do you see?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”

Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”

Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was terrified, because of Samuel’s words. There was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all day long or all night long.

But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men?

Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

Then Saul said to his armour bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me!” But his armour bearer would not, for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it.

When his armour bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.

When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

David said to him, “Why were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”

He could not answer Abner another word, because he was afraid of him.

You know Abner the son of Ner. He came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do.”

When Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How could the LORD’s ark come to me?”

So David would not move the LORD’s ark to be with him in David’s city; but David carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house.

Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, fell on his face, and showed respect. David said, “Mephibosheth?” He answered, “Behold, your servant!”

But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David honours your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Hasn’t David sent his servants to you to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?”

When the children of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.

When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

When all the kings who were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were defeated before Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the children of Ammon any more.

Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”

On the seventh day, the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him and he didn’t listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself if we tell him that the child is dead?”

As for me, where would I carry my shame? And as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.”

The servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and every man got up on his mule and fled.

But Absalom fled. The young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, many people were coming by way of the hillside behind him.

Behold, the whole family has risen against your servant, and they say, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.”

Now therefore, seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid. Your servant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.’

David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise! Let’s flee, or else none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry to depart, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only,

Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter amongst the people who follow Absalom!’

Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.

They took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Israel fled, each to his own tent.

The king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what it was.”

The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.”

For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.

Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.

Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.

He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.

At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.

The LORD thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice.

He sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and confused them.

Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the LORD’s rebuke, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places.

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God,

After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.

Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be considered criminals.”

Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they had finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?”

All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and each man went his way.

Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and hung onto the horns of the altar.

Solomon was told, “Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon; for, behold, he is hanging onto the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’”

This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to the LORD’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar.

All Israel heard of the judgement which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

Therefore Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt;

Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labour; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to David’s house.

If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the LORD’s house at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognised as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said that I would be king over this people.

When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the fortified part of the king’s house and burnt the king’s house over him with fire, and died,

She said, “As the LORD your God lives, I don’t have anything baked, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son.

She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”

Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly;

He said, “How have I sinned, that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?

It will happen, as soon as I leave you, that the LORD’s Spirit will carry you I don’t know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can’t find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.

Now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”.’ He will kill me.”

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”

When he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Ben Hadad says,

The king of Israel answered, “It is according to your saying, my lord, O king. I am yours, and all that I have.”

But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled and came into the city, into an inner room.

Micaiah said, “Behold, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to hide yourself.”

When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely that is the king of Israel!” and they came over to fight against him. Jehoshaphat cried out.

Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, “Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty of your servants be precious in your sight.

Behold, fire came down from the sky and consumed the last two captains of fifty with their fifties. But now let my life be precious in your sight.”

The king of Israel said, “Alas! For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.

They said, “This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the plunder!”

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”

When the servant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”

He answered, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?

If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let’s surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”

For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.”

Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.’”

They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the path was full of garments and equipment which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned and told the king.

Joram turned his hands and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”

But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.

But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Behold, the two kings didn’t stand before him! How then shall we stand?”

He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes.”

When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the LORD’s house;

Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

Judah was defeated by Israel; and each man fled to his tent.

They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.”

He removed the covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s outer entrance to the LORD’s house, because of the king of Assyria.

It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions amongst them, which killed some of them.

Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria don’t know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions amongst them; and behold, they kill them, because they don’t know the law of the god of the land.”

So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

So they feared the LORD, and also made from amongst themselves priests of the high places for themselves, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

They feared the LORD, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from amongst whom they had been carried away.

To this day they do what they did before. They don’t fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes, or the ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

with whom the LORD had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;

but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.

The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever more. You shall not fear other gods.

You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods.

But you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”

So these nations feared the LORD, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.

Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Withdraw from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?”

Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him Rabshakeh’s words.

Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘The LORD says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?

Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops and like grain blasted before it has grown up.

therefore the LORD the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.

When the king had heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

“Go enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the LORD’s wrath that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.”

Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.

Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Don’t be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”

All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

Then Saul said to his armour bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me.” But his armour bearer would not, for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it.

When his armour bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died.

When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where there was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.

David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring God’s ark home to me?”

So David didn’t move the ark with him into David’s city, but carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house.

The fame of David went out into all lands; and the LORD brought the fear of him on all nations.

For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods.

Tremble before him, all the earth. The world also is established that it can’t be moved.

But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, “Do you think that David honours your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven’t his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?”

When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, out of Aram-maacah, and out of Zobah.

When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

David lifted up his eyes, and saw the LORD’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

But David couldn’t go before it to enquire of God, for he was afraid because of the sword of the LORD’s angel.

David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you, until all the work for the service of the LORD’s house is finished.

that they may fear you, to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’

When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.

Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the men subject to forced labour; and the children of Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million troops and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

They struck all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came on them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.

The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.

Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day, when you go into an inner room to hide yourself.”

and said to the judges, “Consider what you do, for you don’t judge for man, but for the LORD; and he is with you in the judgement.

Now therefore let the fear of the LORD be on you. Take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”

He commanded them, saying, “You shall do this in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.

Then some came who told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea from Syria. Behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).

Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to the LORD. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat. The LORD says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed because of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for the LORD is with you.’”

The fear of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel.

Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead; and they thrust him out quickly from there. Indeed, he himself also hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him.

At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him.

“Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater one with us than with him.

Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?”

They called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and to trouble them, that they might take the city.

“Go enquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the LORD’s wrath that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the LORD’s word, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening.

Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building.

Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel were assembled to me because of the trespass of the exiles; and I sat confounded until the evening offering.

Now therefore let’s make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and those who are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the wide place in front of God’s house, trembling because of this matter, and because of the great rain.

The king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Then I was very much afraid.

Our adversaries said, “They will not know or see, until we come in amongst them and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”

When the Jews who lived by them came, they said to us ten times from all places, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”

I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them! Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and wine from them, plus forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people, but I didn’t do so, because of the fear of God.

For they all would have made us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened from the work, that it not be done.” But now, strengthen my hands.

I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home; and he said, “Let us meet together in God’s house, within the temple, and let’s shut the doors of the temple; for they will come to kill you. Yes, in the night they will come to kill you.”

He was hired so that I would be afraid, do so, and sin, and that they might have material for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

“Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets that would have put me in fear.”

When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they lost their confidence; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.

Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

I put my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man and feared God above many.

Today, the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will tell all the king’s princes. This will cause much contempt and wrath.

Then the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s commandment?”

Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day.

The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.

“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”

Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.”

Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast and a holiday. Many from amongst the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.

All the princes of the provinces, the local governors, the governors, and those who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.

because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur”, that is the lot, to consume them and to destroy them;

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.

The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes the day black terrify it.

For the thing which I fear comes on me, that which I am afraid of comes to me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest; but trouble comes.”

But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

then you scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions,

Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.

Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’

“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

How much less will I answer him, and choose my words to argue with him?

Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’

I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent.

Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

But the eyes of the wicked will fail. They will have no way to flee. Their hope will be the giving up of the spirit.”

Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you?

“Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:

withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.

He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors.

Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”

He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.

He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.

Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,

Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.

For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.

In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.

For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.

“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honour as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him?

For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing.

because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

For I don’t know how to give flattering titles, or else my Maker would soon take me away.

Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.

“Yes, at this my heart trembles, and is moved out of its place.

Will it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

Therefore men revere him. He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labour is in vain, she is without fear,

He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.

Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.

Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?

None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws?

Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.

When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.

Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David. LORD, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.

Put them in fear, LORD. Let the nations know that they are only men. Selah.

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”

Why does the wicked person condemn God, and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account”?

For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.

Behold, and answer me, LORD, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;” lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

There they were in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous.

in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honours those who fear the LORD; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;

from the wicked who oppress me, my deadly enemies, who surround me.

They have now surrounded us in our steps. They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth.

He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.

At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire.

The LORD also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice: hailstones and coals of fire.

Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

The foreigners shall fade away, and shall come trembling out of their strongholds.

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever. The LORD’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether.

Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.

For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

What man is he who fears the LORD? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.

The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.

Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

By David. To you, LORD, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.

You, LORD, when you favoured me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.

For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.

Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!

Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Behold, the LORD’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,

I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

The LORD’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Oh fear the LORD, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.

Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of the LORD. A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.

A Psalm by David, for a memorial. LORD, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.

He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.

The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice and the earth melted.

For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.

They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.

Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.

Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.

“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.

The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying,

There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.

because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.

My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.

Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

“I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.”

Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.

Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets.

God, who is enthroned forever, will hear and answer them. Selah. They never change and don’t fear God.

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.

They conspire and lurk, watching my steps. They are eager to take my life.

My soul is amongst lions. I lie amongst those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.

You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.

Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what he has done.

They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy.

Come and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul.

God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.

The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai— at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.

Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.

For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”

They shall fear you while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.

At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?

You pronounced judgement from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent,

Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfil them! Let all of his neighbours bring presents to him who is to be feared.

He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.

You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favourable no more?

The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.

The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

It’s burnt with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.

so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.

Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?

Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

Teach me your way, LORD. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.

I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.

Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.

a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?

What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.

Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,

nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday.

For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised! He is to be feared above all gods.

Worship the LORD in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth.

His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned amongst the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.

Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is Holy!

because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away.

So the nations will fear the LORD’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory.

I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him.

Like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

But the LORD’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,

He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.

They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

Haven’t you rejected us, God? You don’t go out, God, with our armies.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in his commandments.

He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

His heart is established. He will not be afraid in the end when he sees his adversaries.

Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

He will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.

The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.

Now let those who fear the LORD say that his loving kindness endures forever.

Fulfil your promise to your servant, that you may be feared.

Take away my disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good.

I am a friend of all those who fear you, of those who observe your precepts.

Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in your word.

Let those who fear you turn to me. They will know your statutes.

My flesh trembles for fear of you. I am afraid of your judgements.

SIN AND SHIN Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.

then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul.

A Song of Ascents. Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways.

Behold, this is how the man who fears the LORD is blessed.

If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?

House of Levi, praise the LORD! You who fear the LORD, praise the LORD!

If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me. The light around me will be night,”

Hurry to answer me, LORD. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.

Deliver me, LORD, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.

He will fulfil the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of the LORD.

then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Don’t be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes;

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

What the wicked fear will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

The fear of the LORD prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

A wise man fears and shuns evil, but the fool is hot headed and reckless.

In the fear of the LORD is a secure fortress, and he will be a refuge for his children.

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.

Better is little, with the fear of the LORD, than great treasure with trouble.

The fear of the LORD teaches wisdom. Before honour is humility.

By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.

The king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it.

Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favour is like dew on the grass.

The fear of the LORD leads to life, then contentment; he rests and will not be touched by trouble.

The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!”

Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long.

My son, fear the LORD and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious,

for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both?

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion roams the streets!”

The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous thrive.

Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.

The fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the LORD is kept safe.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.

Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, as well as in many words; but you must fear God.

It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also don’t withdraw your hand from that; for he who fears God will come out of them all.

Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.

For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom, for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.

in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,

yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets;

This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night.

Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty.

Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.

They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.

The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live amongst a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!”

David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt the LORD.”

People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns.

All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for sheep to tread on.”

“Don’t call a conspiracy all that this people call a conspiracy. Don’t fear their threats or be terrorised.

The LORD of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.

What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Armies, says, “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.

They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!

Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Behold, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

The LORD’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;

Wail, for the LORD’s day is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.

They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labour. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.

It will happen that like a hunted gazelle and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.

Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,

Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.

Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.

For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

The burden of Egypt. “Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it.

The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.

In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the LORD of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them.

The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of the LORD of Armies, which he determines against it.

They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”

The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.

The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”

For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.

For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, the LORD of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.”

He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest.

When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report of Tyre.

Pass over to Tarshish! Wail, you inhabitants of the coast!

Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth.

It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

Therefore a strong people will glorify you. A city of awesome nations will fear you.

As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honours me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work amongst this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”

Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”

but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you will be swift.

One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

For through the LORD’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod.

His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is your treasure.

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who amongst us can live with the devouring fire? Who amongst us can live with everlasting burning?

Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.

Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

Who are they amongst all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house.

Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The LORD says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?

Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land,

Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.

You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”

The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.

Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’

Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.

Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”

Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.

Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand.

Who amongst you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the LORD’s name, and rely on his God.

“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.

“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?

Have you forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?

“Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed. Don’t be confounded, for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the shame of your youth. You will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.

You will be established in righteousness. You will be far from oppression, for you will not be afraid, and far from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?

So they will fear the LORD’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the LORD’s breath drives.

O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the water to boil. Make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence.

I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them, because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen, but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.”

Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says the LORD.

Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north, evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land.

“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

“Be astonished, you heavens, at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says the LORD.

The young lions have roared at him and raised their voices. They have made his land waste. His cities are burnt up, without inhabitant.

“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.

I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute.

Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’

Set up a standard towards Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn’t turned back from us.

“It will happen at that day,” says the LORD, “that the heart of the king will perish, along with the heart of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.”

Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.

My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine.

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say.

Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.

Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’

They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.

“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the middle of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem, for evil looks out from the north with a great destruction.

The LORD says, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.”

We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labour.

Don’t go out into the field or walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror are on every side.

The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away.

The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?

“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.”

“Everyone beware of his neighbour, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will go around like a slanderer.

The LORD says, “Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak. They must be carried, because they can’t move. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

Who shouldn’t fear you, King of the nations? For it belongs to you. Because amongst all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is no one like you.

But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.

The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.

“Therefore the LORD says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy in the LORD’s name, that you not die by our hand’—

Give glory to the LORD your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness.

Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.

Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.

to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head.

Let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet.

Say, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle.

I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

On the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib.

For the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword.

For I have heard the defaming of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”

Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words.

They will drink, and reel back and forth, and be insane, because of the sword that I will send amongst them.”

Wail, you shepherds, and cry. Wallow in dust, you leader of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you will fall like fine pottery.

The shepherds will have no way to flee. The leader of the flock will have no escape.

Why have you prophesied in the LORD’s name, saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” All the people were crowded around Jeremiah in the LORD’s house.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn’t he fear the LORD, and entreat the favour of the LORD, and the LORD relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? We would commit great evil against our own souls that way!”

When Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt.

For the LORD says: “We have heard a voice of trembling; a voice of fear, and not of peace.

Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?

Therefore don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD. Don’t be dismayed, Israel. For, behold, I will save you from afar, and save your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid.

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come! Let’s go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we will dwell at Jerusalem.’”

Now when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one towards another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.”

Then the princes said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah go hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”

The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn’t tear their garments.

When the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,

Now please hear, my lord the king: please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

Then the princes said to the king, “Please let this man be put to death, because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them; for this man doesn’t seek the welfare of this people, but harm.”

Zedekiah the king said, “Behold, he is in your hand; for the king can’t do anything to oppose you.”

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? If I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.”

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you won’t die.

But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king; don’t hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also tell us what the king said to you;’

When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out towards the Arabah.

But I will deliver you in that day,” says the LORD; “and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, “Don’t be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?”

But ten men were found amongst those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them amongst their brothers.

Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed.

because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don’t be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

saying, “No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there we will dwell;”’

then it will happen that the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, will follow close behind you there in Egypt; and you will die there.

but Baruch the son of Neriah has turned you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.”

They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.’

Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says the LORD.

He made many to stumble. Yes, they fell on one another. They said, ‘Arise! Let’s go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.’

Also her hired men in the middle of her are like calves of the stall, for they also are turned back. They have fled away together. They didn’t stand, for the day of their calamity has come on them, the time of their visitation.

“But don’t you be afraid, Jacob my servant. Don’t be dismayed, Israel; for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid.

Don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant,” says the LORD, “for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.”

The LORD says: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, and will overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein. The men will cry, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail.

At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don’t look back for their children because their hands are so feeble,

The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!

Moab is destroyed. Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

For they will go up by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping. For at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.

Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.

The destroyer will come on every city, and no city will escape; the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.

“The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.

Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch. Ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, ‘What has been done?’

“How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So will Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.”

For the LORD says: “Behold, he will fly as an eagle, and will spread out his wings against Moab.

Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized. The heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says the LORD.

“He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken in the snare, for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation,” says the LORD.

“Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the middle of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

Behold, I will bring a terror on you,” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies, “from all who are around you. All of you will be driven completely out, and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.

Flee! Turn back! Dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him when I visit him.

As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill, though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.

The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea.

Behold, he will come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah. The heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Of Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t be quiet.

Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.

They will take their tents and their flocks. they will carry away for themselves their curtains, all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, ‘Terror on every side!’

Flee! Wander far off! Dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor,” says the LORD; “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.

I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life. I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they will each return to their own people, and they will each flee to their own land.

A sword is on the boasters, and they will become fools. A sword is on her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.

The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labour.

The earth trembles at the noise of the taking of Babylon. The cry is heard amongst the nations.

The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken.

One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.

So the passages are seized. They have burnt the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.”

When they are inflamed, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the LORD.

Don’t let your heart faint. Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went towards the Arabah,

“Look, LORD; for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, the sword bereaves. At home, it is like death.

“You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.

He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.

“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”

Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”

You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”

The kings of the earth didn’t believe, neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains. They set an ambush for us in the wilderness.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.

For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim:

I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire.

As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.

Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above.

When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings.

I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.

As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the LORD’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell amongst scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

I have made your forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay;

that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes.

Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come! The day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains.

“‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded.

They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle, for my wrath is on all its multitude.

“‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence.

All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water.

They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.’”

While they were killing, and I was left, I fell on my face, and cried, and said, “Ah Lord GOD! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,” says the Lord GOD.

When I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

“‘The prince who is amongst them will bear his baggage on his shoulder in the dark, and will go out. They will dig through the wall to carry things out that way. He will cover his face, because he will not see the land with his eyes.

“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness.

Tell the people of the land, ‘The Lord GOD says concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the land of Israel: “They will eat their bread with fearfulness and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.

“Now, behold, if he fathers a son who sees all his father’s sins which he has done, and fears, and doesn’t do likewise,

Tell the forest of the south, ‘Hear the LORD’s word: The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burnt by it.

All flesh will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.”’”

Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’”

Tell the land of Israel, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.

All flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not return any more.”’

It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord GOD.’”

I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made as lightning. It is pointed for slaughter.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it.

By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates, as men enter into a city which is broken open.

“The Lord GOD says to Tyre: ‘Won’t the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made within you?

Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and will tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.

Now the islands will tremble in the day of your fall. Yes, the islands that are in the sea will be dismayed at your departure.’

I will make you a terror, and you will no more have any being. Though you are sought for, yet you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”

At the sound of the cry of your pilots, the pasture lands will shake.

All who handle the oars, the mariners and all the pilots of the sea, will come down from their ships. They will stand on the land,

All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at you, and their kings are horribly afraid. They are troubled in their face.

All those who know you amongst the peoples will be astonished at you. You have become a terror, and you will exist no more.”’”

“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’

For the day is near, even the LORD’s day is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.

“‘“In that day messengers will go out from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid. There will be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.”

“‘The Lord GOD says: “I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis. There will be no more a prince from the land of Egypt. I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. All the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

“I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction amongst the nations, into the countries which you have not known.

Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid for you, when I brandish my sword before them. They will tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.”

whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

“There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.

They have made Elam a bed amongst the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are around her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is put amongst those who are slain.

“There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude. Their graves are around them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living.

They will not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war and have laid their swords under their heads. Their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

“There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain. They are put to shame in the terror which they caused by their might. They lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

“For I have put his terror in the land of the living. He will be laid amongst the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude,” says the Lord GOD.

You will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.

For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken. Surely in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel,

so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my presence. Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.

I will enter into judgement with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, torrential rains with great hailstones, fire, and sulphur.

Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and behold, the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house; so I fell on my face.

The prince of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink. For why should he see your faces worse looking than the youths who are of your own age? Then you would endanger my head with the king.”

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamt dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.

The king said to them, “I have dreamt a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”

The king answered the Chaldeans, “The thing has gone from me. If you don’t make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut in pieces, and your houses will be made a dunghill.

The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on the earth who can show the king’s matter, because no king, lord, or ruler has asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or Chaldean.

So the decree went out, and the wise men were to be slain. They sought Daniel and his companions to be slain.

“You, O king, saw, and behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its appearance was terrifying.

Whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace the same hour.”

Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste. He spoke and said to his counsellors, “Didn’t we cast three men bound into the middle of the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.”

I saw a dream which made me afraid; and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stricken mute for a while, and his thoughts troubled him. The king answered, “Belteshazzar, don’t let the dream or the interpretation, trouble you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation to your adversaries.

In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, and his face was changed in him, and his lords were perplexed.

Because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he wanted to, and he kept alive whom he wanted to. He raised up whom he wanted to, and he put down whom he wanted to.

“I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God, and steadfast forever. His kingdom is that which will not be destroyed. His dominion will be even to the end.

“After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there was a fourth animal, awesome, powerful, and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the animals that were before it. It had ten horns.

“I considered the horns, and behold, there came up amongst them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking arrogantly.

“As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

“Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth animal, which was different from all of them, exceedingly terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of bronze; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet;

and concerning the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three fell, even that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke arrogantly, whose look was more stout than its fellows.

“So he said, ‘The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down and break it in pieces.

“Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts troubled me greatly, and my face was changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart.”

When I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. Then behold, there stood before me someone with the appearance of a man.

So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened, and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, for the vision belongs to the time of the end.”

Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face towards the ground; but he touched me and set me upright.

“In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding riddles, will stand up.

His power will be mighty, but not by his own power. He will destroy awesomely, and will prosper in what he does. He will destroy the mighty ones and the holy people.

Through his policy he will cause deceit to prosper in his hand. He will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many in their security. He will also stand up against the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human hands.

I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick for some days. Then I rose up and did the king’s business. I wondered at the vision, but no one understood it.

I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me didn’t see the vision, but a great quaking fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves.

So I was left alone and saw this great vision. No strength remained in me; for my face grew deathly pale, and I retained no strength.

Yet I heard the voice of his words. When I heard the voice of his words, then I fell into a deep sleep on my face, with my face towards the ground.

He said to me, “Daniel, you greatly beloved man, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have been sent to you, now.” When he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.

When he had spoken these words to me, I set my face towards the ground and was mute.

Behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth, and spoke and said to him who stood before me, “My lord, by reason of the vision my sorrows have overtaken me, and I retain no strength.

For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, immediately there remained no strength in me. There was no breath left in me.”

But news out of the east and out of the north will trouble him; and he will go out with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

“Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!

For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear the LORD; and the king, what can he do for us?”

The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven, for its people will mourn over it, along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!”

They will walk after the LORD, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,” says the LORD.

Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.

I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is close at hand:

A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array.

At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.

The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

The LORD thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of the LORD is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

He said: “The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither.”

Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and the LORD hasn’t done it?

The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken. Who can but prophesy?

“Therefore I will do this to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.

In all vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through the middle of you,” says the LORD.

“Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light.

As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

Won’t the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention the LORD’s name.’

Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there,

It will happen in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake. Break them in pieces on the head of all of them. I will kill the last of them with the sword. Not one of them will flee away. Not one of them will escape.

Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.

Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.

Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.

So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”

He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”

Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, “We beg you, LORD, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you.”

Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

The LORD’s voice calls to the city— and wisdom fears your name— “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.

The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hand on their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.

They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the earth, they will come trembling out of their dens. They will come with fear to the LORD our God, and will be afraid because of you.

The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.

But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked with the lion’s cubs, and no one made them afraid?

You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.

Behold, your troops amongst you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.

Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.

For, behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

They are feared and dreaded. Their judgement and their dignity proceed from themselves.

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals will terrify you, because of men’s blood and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.

But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”

LORD, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.

He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled.

The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.

I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.

Be silent at the presence of the Lord GOD, for the day of the LORD is at hand. For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests.

The great day of the LORD is near. It is near and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of the LORD. The mighty man cries there bitterly.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,

a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high battlements.

I will bring such distress on men that they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

before the appointed time when the day passes as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD comes on you, before the day of the LORD’s anger comes on you.

The LORD will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.

I said, “Just fear me. Receive correction,” so that her dwelling won’t be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they rose early and corrupted all their doings.

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the LORD their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD.

This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived amongst you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’

Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

so again I have thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Don’t be afraid.

Ashkelon will see it, and fear; Gaza also, and will writhe in agony; as will Ekron, for her expectation will be disappointed; and the king will perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

In that day,” says the LORD, “I will strike every horse with terror and his rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

You shall flee by the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel. Yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with you.

It will happen in that day that a great panic from the LORD will be amongst them; and they will each seize the hand of his neighbour, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;

I will come near to you to judgement. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says the LORD of Armies.

Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the LORD and who honoured his name.

But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.

But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,

The disciples came to him and woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord! We are dying!”

He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.

When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way.

Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.

Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.

Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus,

and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptiser. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him.”

When he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid.”

But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.”

When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid.

But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet.”

When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.

and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.

No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.

You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgement of Gehenna?

Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”

But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the earth and hid his lord’s money.

“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter.

I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’

But they said, “Not during the feast, lest a riot occur amongst the people.”

They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to ask him, “It isn’t me, is it, Lord?”

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

But Peter followed him from a distance to the court of the high priest, and entered in and sat with the officers, to see the end.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the court, and a maid came to him, saying, “You were also with Jesus, the Galilean!”

But he denied it before them all, saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

When he had gone out onto the porch, someone else saw him and said to those who were there, “This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

Again he denied it with an oath, “I don’t know the man.”

After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, “Surely you are also one of them, for your speech makes you known.”

Then he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately the rooster crowed.

Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.

Now the centurion and those who were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were done, were terrified, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Now on the next day, which was the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together to Pilate,

saying, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’

Command therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come at night and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead;’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men.

The angel answered the women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified.

They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me.”

saying, “Ha! What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried, “You are the Son of God!”

A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.

He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

They were greatly afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him,

and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.”

He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”

Those who fed the pigs fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.

They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

They began to beg him to depart from their region.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”

King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “John the Baptiser has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”

But Herod, when he heard this, said, “This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead.”

for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.

but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out;

for they all saw him and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them and said to them, “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid.”

For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid.

After crying out and convulsing him greatly, it came out of him. The boy became like one dead, so much that most of them said, “He is dead.”

But they didn’t understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?”

They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going in front of them, and they were amazed; and those who followed were afraid. He again took the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were going to happen to him.

The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.

They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

If we should say, ‘From men’”—they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet.

They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him and went away.

the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.

For they said, “Not during the feast, because there might be a riot amongst the people.”

They began to be sorrowful, and to ask him one by one, “Surely not I?” And another said, “Surely not I?”

Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that you today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

Again he returned and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they didn’t know what to answer him.

They all left him, and fled.

A certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth thrown around himself over his naked body. The young men grabbed him,

but he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

Peter had followed him from a distance, until he came into the court of the high priest. He was sitting with the officers, and warming himself in the light of the fire.

As Peter was in the courtyard below, one of the maids of the high priest came,

and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You were also with the Nazarene, Jesus!”

But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying.” He went out on the porch, and the rooster crowed.

The maid saw him and began again to tell those who stood by, “This is one of them.”

But he again denied it. After a little while again those who stood by said to Peter, “You truly are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.”

But he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know this man of whom you speak!”

Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed.

They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.

Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be.

The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”

His mercy is for generations and generations on those who fear him.

Fear came on all who lived around them, and all these sayings were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea.

to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear,

Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptised by him, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice,

saying, “Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.”

and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”

Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”

Fear took hold of all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen amongst us!” and, “God has visited his people!”

But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water.

They came to him and awoke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are dying!” He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; then they ceased, and it was calm.

He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid, they marvelled, saying to one another, “Who is this then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!”

When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.

People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. Then he entered into the boat and returned.

When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

While he still spoke, one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house came, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t trouble the Teacher.”

But Jesus hearing it, answered him, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed.”

Herod said, “I beheaded John, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” He sought to see him.

While he said these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud.

Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him so that he foams; and it hardly departs from him, bruising him severely.

But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

“I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

“Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn’t expecting him and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful.

On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”

“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.

saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man.

He wouldn’t for a while; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”

Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,

for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn’t lay down, and reap that which you didn’t sow.’

“He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn’t lay down and reaping that which I didn’t sow.

They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’

But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”

They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.

He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!”

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”

The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them.

They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.

When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”

There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;

men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth.

The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people.

They seized him and led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. But Peter followed from a distance.

When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat amongst them.

A certain servant girl saw him as he sat in the light, and looking intently at him, said, “This man also was with him.”

He denied Jesus, saying, “Woman, I don’t know him.”

After a little while someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them!” But Peter answered, “Man, I am not!”

After about one hour passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Truly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean!”

But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’

But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?

While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living amongst the dead?

But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

When therefore they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were afraid.

But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.

Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?

His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore his parents said, “He is of age. Ask him.”

He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.

The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep.

The disciples asked him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.

If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Therefore the multitude who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

Nevertheless, even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,

Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burnt.

When therefore he said to them, “I am he,” they went backward and fell to the ground.

Then the maid who kept the door said to Peter, “Are you also one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.”

Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. They were warming themselves. Peter was with them, standing and warming himself.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said therefore to him, “You aren’t also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

One of the servants of the high priest, being a relative of him whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”

Peter therefore denied it again, and immediately the rooster crowed.

When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.

Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he didn’t enter in.

When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle and said to them, “Peace be to you.”

They were all amazed and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

But so that this spreads no further amongst the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.”

Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.

She fell down immediately at his feet and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.

Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things.

None of the rest dared to join them; however, the people honoured them.

Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

‘I am the God of your fathers: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled and dared not look.

Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken happen to me.”

But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

The men who travelled with him stood speechless, hearing the sound, but seeing no one.

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.

When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

So the assemblies throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.

At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, “Cornelius!”

He, fastening his eyes on him and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God.

They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say.”

but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir amongst the soldiers about what had become of Peter.

Paul stood up, and gesturing with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

“Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those amongst you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you.

Beware therefore, lest that come on you which is spoken in the prophets:

‘Behold, you scoffers! Wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.’”

The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,

The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,

and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city.

The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.

The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;

This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”

For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning today’s riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn’t be able to give an account of this commotion.”

Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;

When we heard these things, both we and the people of that place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are amongst the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk after the customs.

crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!”

I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

“Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me.

Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realised that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from amongst them and bring him into the barracks.

As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, “Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you.”

When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

When much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them

and said to them, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.”

But before long, a stormy wind beat down from shore, which is called Euroclydon.

After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along.

When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.

saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’

Fearing that we would run aground on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern, and wished for daylight.

As the sailors were trying to flee out of the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they would lay out anchors from the bow,

The soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim out and escape.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

“Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have broken down your altars. I am left alone, and they seek my life.”

True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;

for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

See then the goodness and severity of God. Towards those who fell, severity; but towards you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

Therefore he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgement.

For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the authority,

for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.

Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.

but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.

and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.

Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.

For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defence, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.

His affection is more abundantly towards you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.

that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my letters.

But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire, that perhaps there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots,

I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach amongst the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.

For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labour for you.

As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised, just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ,

and that most of the brothers in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear.

and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God.

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.

For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labour would have been in vain.

For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.

Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

and those words will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus:

But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come.

and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

Let’s fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.

There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,

but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burnt with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,

the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,

for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”.

So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”

Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,

for our God is a consuming fire.

So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder.

If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear,

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

seeing your pure behaviour in fear.

So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are if you do well and are not put in fear by any terror.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear,

They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,

Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

And behold, a pale horse, and the name of he who sat on it was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.

I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.

The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind.

The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the other blasts of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”

The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces.

They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.

They had breastplates like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots and horses rushing to war.

They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.

After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.

In that day there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.

His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.”

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.

The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled at the beast.

They worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

He said with a loud voice, “Fear the Lord, and give him glory, for the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!”

Who wouldn’t fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.”

standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgement has come in one hour.’

The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, will stand far away for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

A voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!”

I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.

But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”