In his neck abides strength: the neck is thought of as the place of strength in Psalm 75.5. “He has a powerful neck.”

Terror dances before him suggests a picture of an abstract quality performing a human action. The words translated terror and dances occur nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore there is a degree of uncertainty in their meanings. The word for terror is related to a verb meaning to languish, that is, to lose strength, to wither. The withering away of one’s strength is said to dance, jump, leap before this powerful monster. The picture created by this figurative language is probably that the awesome power of Leviathan as described in verses 18-21 produces such panic in the beholder or its victim that all sense of strength is transformed (dances) into weakness.

Good News Translation “all who meet him are terrified” is a statement of the result of encountering this monster. It may be possible to keep some of the imagery by saying, for example, “and he causes everything to collapse with fear,” or “and he makes his victims wither with fright,” or “all who face him are terror-stricken.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .