Fear of the Lord

Is in the Old Testament used as a designation of true piety (Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28; Psalm 19:9). It is a fear conjoined with love and hope, and is therefore not a slavish dread, but rather filial reverence. (Comp. Deuteronomy 32:6; Hosea 11:1; Isaiah 1:2; 63:16; 64:8.) God is called "the Fear of Isaac" (Genesis 31:42, 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 (Matthew 10:28; 2 Corinthians 5:11; 7:1; Philippians 2:12; Ephesians 5:21; Hebrews 12:28, 29).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) A variant of Fere, a mate, a companion.

2. (n.) A painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger; apprehension; anxiety; solicitude; alarm; dread.

3. (n.) Apprehension of incurring, or solicitude to avoid, God's wrath; the trembling and awful reverence felt toward the Supreme Being.

4. (n.) Respectful reverence for men of authority or worth.

5. (n.) That which causes, or which is the object of, apprehension or alarm; source or occasion of terror; danger; dreadfulness.

6. (n.) To feel a painful apprehension of; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotion of alarm or solicitude.

7. (n.) To have a reverential awe of; to solicitous to avoid the displeasure of.

8. (n.) To be anxious or solicitous for.

9. (n.) To suspect; to doubt.

10. (n.) To affright; to terrify; to drive away or prevent approach of by fear.

11. (v. i.) To be in apprehension of evil; to be afraid; to feel anxiety on account of some expected evil.