Bible Dictionary · F
Fear of the Lord the
Is in the Old Testament used as a designation of true piety (Prov 1:7; Job 28:28; Ps 19:9). It is a fear conjoined with love and hope, and is therefore not a slavish dread, but rather filial reverence. (Comp. Deut 32:6; Hos 11:1; Isa 1:2; Isa 63:16; Isa 64:8.) God is called “the Fear of Isaac” (Gen 31:42, Gen 31:53), i.e., the God whom Isaac feared.
A holy fear is enjoined also in the New Testament as a preventive of carelessness in religion, and as an incentive to penitence (Matt 10:28; 2 Cor 5:11; 2 Cor 7:1; Phil 2:12; Eph 5:21; Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
