Job 4:15

Then a breath of air ¹  passes ²  by my face; it makes ³  the hair of my flesh stand up.

A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.

"Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up.

A spirit swept past my face. Its wind sent shivers up my spine.

A spirit glided right in front of me--the hair on my head stood on end.

And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff:

A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.

Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up.

Then a breath of air ¹  passes ²  by my face; it makes ³  the hair of my flesh stand up.

¹ tn The word רוּחַ (ruakh) can be “spirit” or “breath.” The implication here is that it was something that Eliphaz felt – what he saw follows in v. 16. The commentators are divided on whether this is an apparition, a spirit, or a breath. The word can be used in either the masculine or the feminine, and so the gender of the verb does not favor the meaning “spirit.” In fact, in Isa 21:1 the same verb חָלַף (khalaf, “pass on, through”) is used with the subject being a strong wind or hurricane “blowing across.” It may be that such a wind has caused Eliphaz’s hair to stand on end here. D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 111) also concludes it means “wind,” noting that in Job a spirit or spirits would be called רְפָאִים (rÿfa’im), אֶלֹהִים (’elohim) or אוֹב (’ov).

² tn The verbs in this verse are imperfects. In the last verse the verbs were perfects when Eliphaz reported the fear that seized him. In this continuation of the report the description becomes vivid with the change in verbs, as if the experience were in progress.

³ tn The subject of this verb is also רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”), since it can assume either gender. The “hair of my flesh” is the complement and not the subject; therefore the Piel is to be retained and not changed to a Qal as some suggest (and compare with Ps 119:120).