A dreadful sound [is] in his ears
Or "a voice", or "sound of fears" F20, of what causes fears;
and which are either imaginary; sometimes wicked men, fear when
there is no cause or occasion for it; they fancy an enemy at
their heels, and flee, when none pursues them; they are a
"Magormissabib", or "terror on every side", a fear to themselves
and all about them, ( Jeremiah
20:3 ) ; like Cain, who fancied and feared that every man
that met him would slay him ( Genesis 4:13
Genesis
4:14 ) ; such is the effect of a guilty conscience: or real;
and these either extraordinary sounds, such as were made in the
ears of the Syrian host, which caused them to flee, and leave
their tents, and all their substance in them, ( 2 Kings 7:6 2 Kings 7:7 ) ; or
ordinary, as the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, wars and
rumours which are very terrible, especially to some persons; or
sounds of fears, reports of one calamity after another, which
cause fears; and so may respect Job's troubles, and the dreadful
sound of them in his ears, brought by one messenger of bad
tidings after another: but there is a more dreadful sound than
either of these, which is sometimes in the ears of wicked men;
the terrors of the law of God broken by them, the menaces and
curses of it, and a sound of hell and damnation, which
continually rings in their ears, and fills the with horror and
black despair; and so the Targum,
``the voice or sound of the fears in hell is in his ears;''and among the rest of his fears what follows is one, and so some connect the words, that F21
in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon
him;
either God the lawgiver, whose law he has transgressed, and who
is able, as to save his people, so to destroy the wicked, soul
and body, in hell; and destruction from the Almighty, Job himself
says, was a terror to him, ( Job 31:23 ) ; or a
destroying angel, such an one as went through the land of Egypt,
and destroyed the firstborn, and into the camp of Israel, when
they committed sin, and were destroyed of the destroyer; or some
enemy, plunderer, and robber, such as the Sabeans and Chaldeans
were, and to whom respect may be had; or even the devil himself,
Apollyon, the destroyer of the souls of men, and who sometimes
wicked men fear will come and carry them away, soul and body, to
hell; or it may be death is meant, which kills and destroys all
men; and wicked men are afraid that in the midst of all their
peace and prosperity sudden destruction by death should come upon
them, like a thief in the night, and remove them from all their
enjoyments; and whether they are or no under any fearful
apprehensions of this, it certainly will be their case.