Dread – Be in shrinking apprehension or expectation of something dangerous or disagreeable.
God used this word in its various forms 18 times in Scripture, all to Israel in their Masoretic Text Old Testament.
Dreadful and terrible are often used together. The most dreaded person in Scripture is God, and the most dreadful event is the judgement of God.
Dread refers to the anxiety felt in anticipation of something dangerous or disagreeable. Because we know that mankind deserves the wrath of God, mankind should be in anxious anticipation of His judgement; mankind is in danger of eternal condemnation.