Terrors overtake him like a flood: in 18.11 Bildad says “terror frightens the wicked man.” Terrors expresses either the “fear, dread, fright” that is within the heart of the wicked, or things which cause him to be terrified, frightened. Overtake translates a verb whose usual meaning is “strike.” The Hebrew “like the waters” is translated like a flood. Good News Translation has “strike like a sudden flood,” since it is the action of the flooding waters that strike him. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates “like the waters” as an “A” reading, meaning there is no doubt about its being original. Their remark is “The waters are those of a wadi (stream bed) which unexpectedly take the traveler by surprise.” Others propose changing the Hebrew for “like the waters” to get “daylight,” which is a contrasting parallel with in the night in line b. Dhorme translates “terrors strike him in broad daylight.” This is followed by New Jerusalem Bible and others. It is best here to stay with the Hebrew, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. This line may also be expressed “Terror surprises him like a sudden flood,” or “He is caught by terror as a sudden flood that washes things away,” or “As a sudden flood comes and carries things away, fright does the same to him.”

In the night a whirlwind carries him off: the words translated whirlwind carries him off are a repetition of the words spoken by Job in 21.18. Whirlwind translates a word meaning a destructive or violent wind. This may or may not be a whirlwind. Good News Translation has “a wind.” Its force is implied by “blow them away.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .