Job 4:14

Job 4:14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

Ver. 14. Fear came on me, and trembling] Fear in the inward man, and trembling in the outward. And this is God’s method still: the more he draweth nigh to any man the more doth rottenness enter into his bones, and he is horribly afraid of God’s judgments, with David; he trembleth at his word, with Josiah, that it may be the more efficacious in his soul. "Let us have grace" (saith the apostle), "whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for even our God also" (and not the God of the Jews only) "is a consuming fire," Heb 12:28-29. Aξιωματικωτατος μεν εστιν ο βασιλευς ημων, saith Basil. Our King will be served like himself, served in state; and although he alloweth us a humble familiarity, yet he expecteth our reverential fear; acquainted he will be with us in our walks of obedience; but yet he takes state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in the addresses we make unto his majesty; he looks we should bring with us a legal faith and a legal repentance, as well as an evangelical; and that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Php 2:12. Terrors and humiliations prepare and posture the heart for revelations; never is it right till a man lie low at God’s feet, putting his mouth in the dust, and crying out, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth: there shall be only fear to make them understand the hearing, Isa 28:19; fear met Eliphaz, and made way for the heavenly vision.

Which made all my bones to shake] Heb. The multitude of my bones, or the number of my bones, how many soever they be, and they are as many (say the Hebrews) as there are affirmative precepts in the law. These pillars of my body shook sore, and threatened a downfall.

- Gelidusque per ima cucurrit

Ossa tremor. - (Aeneid ii.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 4:14. Fear came upon me, and trembling — The Hebrew is very poetical, namely, Fear called me, or called to me. Job expresses himself in similar language, Job 17:14. I have said, קראתי, karati, literally, I have called to corruption. Thus also Jer 30:5, We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear. As in a poem every thing is, or ought to be, alive, so fear is here represented as a person, who comes up to Eliphaz, and speaks to, and arrests him, as an officer of justice. Which made all my bones to shake — Which affected me to such a degree that my mind and body lost all power, and my very bones shook and trembled. It should seem, before he either heard or saw any thing, he was seized with this terror.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:14 Fear is common in God’s presence (Gen 15:12; Dan 8:17-18; 10:8-10), but God tells his people not to be afraid (Gen 15:1; 26:24; Isa 40:9; 44:8). • Eliphaz’s bones trembled like those of a prophet with terrible news to deliver (Jer 23:9; Hab 3:16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In these visions which God showeth to his creatures, there is ever a certain fear joined, that the authority thereof might be had in greater reverence.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

14. Eliphaz depicts graphically the circumstances in which he received the message from heaven. In the dead night, in the midst of his perplexing thoughts upon his bed, a supernatural terror suddenly seized him. Then he was conscious of a breath passing before him, Job_4:15. Then he seemed to perceive a figure in his presence, too dim, however, to be discerned; and at last a whisper of a voice gave utterance to the awful words that expressed the relations of man to God, Job_4:16. So awful were the impressions of that night, that Eliphaz in recalling the circumstances almost feels himself in the midst of them again, and he falls into the present tense in describing them: a breath passeth before my face … an image is before mine eyes … and I hear a voice, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then a spirit passed before my face,.... Which some interpret of a wind (q), a blustering wind, that blew strong in his face; and so the Targum renders it, a stormy wind, such an one as Elijah perceived when the Lord spoke to him, though he was not in that, Kg1 19:11; or such a whirlwind, out of which the Lord spake to Job, Job 38:1; or rather, as Jarchi, an angel, an immaterial spirit, one of Jehovah's ministering spirits, clothed in an human form, and which passed and repassed before Eliphaz, that he might take notice of it:

the hair of my flesh stood up; erect, through surprise and dread; which is sometimes the case, when anything astonishing and terrible is beheld; the blood at such times making its way to the heart, for the preservation of that, leaves the external members of the body cold, and the skin of the flesh, in which the hair is, being contracted by the impetuous influx of the nervous fluid, causes the hair to stand upright, particularly the hair of the head, like the prickles or hedgehogs (r); which has been usual at the sight of an apparition (s).

(q) "ventus", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Broughton. (r) "Obstupui, steteruntque comae----". Virgil. Aeneid. l. 2. ver. 774. & l. 3. ver. 48. "arrectaeque horrore comae". Aeneid. 4. ver. 286. & l. 12. ver. 888. (s) Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 665.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Fear came upon me - Margin, “Met me.” The Chaldee Paraphrase renders this, “a tempest,” זיקא. The Septuagint, φρίκη frikē - “shuddering,” or “horror.” The sense is, that he became greatly alarmed at the vision.

Which made all my bones to shake - Margin, as in Hebrew, the multitude of my bones. A similar image is employed by Virgil,

Obstupuere auimis, gelidusque per ima cucurrit

Ossa tremor;

Aeneid ii. 120.

“A cold tremor ran through all their bones.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Fear came upon me; either caused by the apparition following; or sent by God to humble him, and to prepare him for the more diligent attention to, reverent reception of; and ready compliance with, the Divine message.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. All my bones — Literally, the multitude of my bones. Virgil similarly describes the effects of horror, — “gelidus per ima cucurrit ossa tremor,” (AEneid, 2:120,) — through the inmost bones an icy tremor ran.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fear came upon me, and trembling; compare the "horror of great darkness" which fell upon Abraham. (Gen_15:12) Our nature shrinks from direct contact with the spiritual world, and our earthly frame shudders at the unearthly presence. Which made the multitude of my bones to shake; or, which made my bones greatly to shake (so the LXX" Professor Lee, and others).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

The writer uses parallelism in these verses, conveying a single idea using different statements to emphasize Eliphaz's fear. (See: Parallelism)

fear and trembling came upon me

Here fear and trembling are spoken of as if they were objects that could come to a person. AT: "I began to be afraid and to tremble" (See: Metaphor)

the hair of my flesh stood up

This indicates great fear.

the hair of my flesh

"the hair on my body"

translationWords

fear

spirit

face

flesh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

terror befell me from the spirit that came to me. and the spirit was an angel. as it is stated (Ps. 104:4): “He makes his angels spirits.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.