The Great, the Mighty, the Terrible God

KJV actually does a more interesting translation of Neh 9.32 then the ESV does. KJV translates it: Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy. On the other hand, the ESV renders it: Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love.

Which is better terrible God or awesome God? The translated Hebrew word is "to fear." It means "to be in fear of," "to shudder at," "to be awed by," "to overawe, or alarm." It is difficult to get an exact correlation from Hebrew to English because we are not supposed to fear God as we would fear danger, for instance. On the other hand if we were to translate it "to reverence" God, I think that is not strong enough, and awesome God is a nice try from the ESV, but I don't think that is strong enough either. Thus the difficulties of biblical translation.

This is the very reason that C. S. Lewis so brilliantly captures the character of God by using a lion in the Narnia Chronicles. The lion is kind and gentle (most of the time) to Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan. When he needs to be the lion is absolutely fear-inducing. He is strong. He is terrible. This sort of gets at the truth of "awesome God" or "terrible God" here in Nehemiah. The minute we start thinking of God as a kindly, old grandfather, is the minute we start to go astray.

As Lucy points out to Mr. Timnus, "He is not a tame lion."

Mr. Timnus responds, "No, but he is good."

Just so.