Kaisipang Hudyo sa Job 31:23: Derashot HaRan

The answer to all of these questions is that those who serve out of fear are of two types. The first type serves the Blessed One for reward, so that He bestow good upon him in this world and the next, and out of fear that the Blessed One will punish him for his transgressions in this world with loss of his children or of his wealth or with other evils. In sum, he performs mitzvoth and pushes aside transgressions only for his own benefit, out of compassion for his soul and his body. This is the type referred to as "a porush out of love and a porush out of fear" or as being in the category of those who perform mitzvoth shelo lishmah. The second type of service out of fear is that in which the soul is impressed by the exaltedness, and might, and wonders of the Blessed One, this impression being absorbed by the soul and being constantly immanent within it and assimilated by and inscribed in the heart. In this type, the soul is invested with great fear; humility and modesty constantly pervade it, and it is impossible for it to transgress the word of the L-rd. This type of fear can be compared to that of a servant for his master or of a son for his father, obtaining, as it does, even when it is known that violation of the command will not result in punishment. Job exhorted towards both of these motivations in one verse in which he praises himself [against his accusers] as having attained them, viz. (Job 31:23): "For the fear of the Almighty was upon me, and because of His grandeur I could not [sin]." It is in respect to the second type that it is stated throughout the Gemara that fear of the L-rd is the foundation of all, and it is in respect to this type that the Gemara in Sotah says: "You are both perfectly righteous, but you out of love and you out of fear."

Both of these motivations are subsumed in one verse in which Job retorts in praise of himself against his accusers, featuring himself as always having shunned the vile and pursued the worthy (Job 31:23): "For the fear of the Almighty was upon me, and because of His grandeur I could not [sin]." First he attributes his uprightness to his great fear of G-d and of the retribution meted out by His messengers for opposition to His will, this type of fear being mentioned first by virtue of its being the first, immediate response; and then he says: "And because of His grandeur I could not sin." That is, even if I did not regard the punishment that would befall me for rebellion, still, because of the image of His majesty that I have implanted in my heart I could not transgress His word. And this is the true fear of the L-rd that is mentioned in the verse under discussion.