'Fear' in the Bible

“Your own wickedness will discipline you,And your desertion of the faith will punish you.Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thingFor you to abandon (reject) the Lord your God,And for you to be indifferent to Me and dismiss the [reverent] fear of Me,” says the Lord God of hosts.

‘Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord.‘Do you not tremble [in awe] in My presence?For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,An eternal decree and a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass.Though the waves [of the sea] toss and break, yet they cannot prevail [against the sand ordained to hold them back];Though the waves and the billows roar, yet they cannot cross over [the barrier].[Is not such a God to be feared?]

‘They do not say in their heart,“Let us now fear and worship the Lord our God [with profound awe and reverence],Who gives rain in its season,Both the autumn and the spring rain,Who keeps for usThe appointed weeks of the harvest.”

Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?For it is appropriate and it is Your due!For among all the wise men of the nationsAnd in all their kingdoms,There is none like You.

“For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters,That spreads out its roots by the river;And will not fear the heat when it comes;But its leaves will be green and moist.And it will not be anxious and concerned in a year of droughtNor stop bearing fruit.

I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. And they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” says the Lord.

“Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put Micah to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord? And did not the Lord relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are [thinking of] committing a great evil against ourselves.”

‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ says the Lord,‘Nor be dismayed or downcast, O Israel;For behold, I will save you from a distant land [of exile]And your descendants from the land of their captivity.Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease,And no one will make him afraid.

and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may [reverently] fear Me forever, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will do them good and not turn away from them; and I will put in their heart a fear and reverential awe of Me, so that they will not turn away from Me.

Jerusalem will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for it, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace (prosperity, security, stability) that I provide for it.’

But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans [who rule Babylon] and for fear of the army of the Arameans.’ So we have lived in Jerusalem.”

Now when they had heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear and said to Baruch, “We must surely report all these words to the king.”

Now it happened when the army of the Chaldeans departed from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s [approaching] army,

Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men whom he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one which King Asa [of Judah] had made [about three hundred years earlier] on account of King Baasha of Israel [believing that Baasha would lay siege to Mizpah]. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with [the bodies of] those who were killed.

then the sword, of which you are afraid, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid will follow closely after you in Egypt, and you will die there.

“But as for you, do not fear, O My servant Jacob,Nor be dismayed, O Israel!For behold, I will save you from [your captivity in] a distant land,And your descendants from the land of their exile;And Jacob will return and be quiet and secure,And no one will make him afraid.

“Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,” says the Lord,“For I am with you.For I will make a full and complete end of all the nationsTo which I have driven you;Yet I will not make a full end of you.But I will discipline and correct you appropriatelyAnd by no means will I declare you guiltless or leave you unpunished.”

“Cut off the sower from BabylonAnd the one who handles the sickle at the time of harvest.For fear of the sword of the oppressorEveryone will return to his own peopleAnd everyone will flee to his own land.