Job 4:15

Job 4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

Ver. 15. Then a spirit passed before my face] Some render it a wind, as a messenger or forerunner of God near at hand, as 1Ki 19:11. But better, a good angel in some bodily shape, Psa 104:4 Luk 24:37; for else how could he be seen of Eliphaz, gliding rather than going, as a ship upon the face of the waters?

The hair of my flesh stood up] Horripilatus sum. In a fright the heart falleth down, the hair standeth up; the blood hastening to the heart to relieve it, as soldiers do to the castle when all is likely to be lost.

Dirigui, steteruntque comae -

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 4:15. Then — Hebrew, And, as the particle ו, vau, generally signifies. A spirit passed before my face — An angel in a visible shape, otherwise he could not have discerned it, nor would have been affrighted by it. The hair of my flesh stood up — Through that excessive consternation and horror, which seized me at the sight of so glorious and unusual an appearance.

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

4:15 A spirit (or wind) swept past my face: Wind is a physical display of God’s powerful presence (38:1; Nah 1:3; Acts 2:2; cp. 1 Kgs 19:11).

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

(15) A spirit passed before my face.—It is vain to argue from this passage that spiritual essences are capable of being seen by the bodily eye, because, first of all, the language is highly figurative and poetical, and because, secondly, every one understands that a spiritual manifestation can be made only to the spirit. The notion, therefore, of seeing a spirit is absurd in itself, because it involves the idea of seeing the invisible; but it is conceivable that the perceptions of the inner spirit may be so vivid as to assume the character of outward manifestations.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. then a spirit] Rather, a breath. It was something which he felt; that which he saw follows in Job_4:16. The word spirit does not seem used in the Old Testament in the sense of an apparition.

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.

It stood still,.... That is, the spirit, or the angel in a visible form; it was before going to and fro, but now it stood still right against Eliphaz, as if it had something to say to him, and so preparing him to attend to it; which he might do the better, it standing before him while speaking to him, that he might have the opportunity of taking more notice of it:

but, notwithstanding this advantageous position of it:

I could not discern the form thereof; what it was, whether human or any other:

an image was before mine eyes; he saw something, some appearance and likeness, but could not tell what it was; perhaps the fear and surprise he was in hindered him from taking in any distinct idea of it, or that particular notice of it, so as to be able to form in his own mind any suitable notion of it, or to describe it to others:

there was silence both in the spirit or image, which, standing still, made no rushing noise, and in Eliphaz himself, who kept in his breath, and listened with all the attention he could to it; or a small low voice, as Ben Melech interprets it: so it follows:

and I heard a voice; a distinct articulate voice or sound of words, very audibly delivered by the spirit or image that stood before him:

saying; as follows.

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

Then a spirit passed before my face - He does not intimate whether it was the spirit of a man, or an angel who thus appeared. The belief in such apparitions was common in the early ages, and indeed has prevailed at all times. No one can demonstrate that God could not communicate his will in such a manner as this, or by a messenger deputed from his immediate presence to impart valuable truth to people.

The hair of my flesh stood up - This is an effect which is known often to be produced by fear. Sometimes the hair is made to turn white almost in an instant, as an effect of sudden alarm; but usually the effect is to make it stand on end. Seneca uses language remarkably similar to this in describing the effect of fear, in Hercule Oetoeo:

Vagus per artus errat excussos tremor;

Erectus horret crinis. Impulsis adhuc

Star terror animis. et cor attonitum salit,

Pavidumque trepidis palpitat venis jecur.

So Virgil,

Steteruntque comae, et vox faucibus haesit.

Aeneid ii. 774.

See also Aeneid iii. 48, iv. 289. So also Aeneid xii. 868:

Arrectaeque horrore comae.

A similar description of the effect of fear is given in the Ghost’s speech to Hamlet:

“But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood.

Make thy two eyes like stars, start from their spheres,

Thy knotty and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.”

The fact here referred to - that fear or fright; causes the hair to stand on end - is too well established, and too common to admit a doubt. The cause may be, that sudden fear has the effect to drive the blood to the heart, as the seat of vitality, and the extremities are left cold, and the skin thus contracts, and the effect is to raise the hair.

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

Spirit: angel, or gentle breeze. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Then, Heb. and, or for, as this particle is oft used. So this was the reason of the foregoing thoughts and fear.

A spirit; an angel in some visible shape, otherwise he could not have discerned it, nor would have been affrighted at it.

The hair of my flesh, i.e. of my body, as flesh is taken, Gen 2:24; Psa 16:9; 119:120.

Stood up, through that excessive horror caused by so glorious, unusual, and terrible a presence; which God used to excite in men upon such occasions, to convince them that it was not a vain imagination or illusion, but a real vision and revelation, and that from God.

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

15. A spirit — רוח, rouahh, as a verb, signifies to breathe or to blow, and as a noun, bears the meaning of breath or spirit, according as the associated thought shall determine. Locke early announced the principle, “I doubt not but if we could trace them to their source we should find, in all languages, the names which stand for things that fall not under our senses to have had their first rise from sensible ideas.” The use of a kindred word for spirit may have been developed in, or transmitted to, all these different languages through the reflection that breath and spirit are alike invisible, that they are so intimately associated together that, with the extinction of life, they both disappear from the knowledge of men. Or, as Delitzsch (Bib. Psych., p. 273) more profoundly suggests, “that the breathing… is that form of life, wherewith life begins to become self-life… and to evidence itself outwardly.” Thus, in the Latin, we have animus, the mind, which Cicero says is so called from anima, air or breath. The Greek word πνευμα, pneuma; the Sanscrit, atman; the Aztec, checatl; the Mohawk, atonritz; and our own word, spirit, (Latin, spiritus,) as well as similar words in other languages, primarily bore the meaning of breath or wind, as well as of spirit. The word rouahh belongs to the same class. With significance it appears here, as in 1Ki_22:21, (a rare construction,) in agreement with the masculine form of the verb. Its spiritual meaning was evidently just as fixed in the days of Job, (Job_32:8,) as that of spirit is in ours. In our text the word must mean spirit, as in 1Ki_22:21, and in the Targum, since acts of moral consciousness and spiritual intelligence are attributed to it. It speaks, reasons, (uses the argumentum a fortiori,) and communicates the sublimest thoughts upon the relations of man to God. This passage is of great interest, as it unquestionably shows that unembodied existence was taken for granted in the days of Job. This is the first time on scripture page that spirit, other than God, sundered from bodily restrictions, is personified. Subsequently evil spirits appear on their dark missions, as in 1Sa_16:15; 1Sa_16:23, etc. Whether this being was human or of some other order of spiritual intelligences, does not appear from the vision. Commentators in general have been of the opinion that it was an angel. We have an important datum, in the free and natural assumption of Eliphaz, that spirit can live without a body. This datum will materially help us to a proper conception of the knowledge that Job possessed in those early ages, and will shed light upon the controverted passages in this book, as to the condition of the dead.

Passed — יחל, glided by. The same word is used in Job_9:11, of deity. The employment of this verb thus in connexion with conscious existence, disposes of the reasoning Hitzig bases upon the verb, for rendering its subject rouahh, wind, (hauch.)

The hair of my flesh — In like manner the ghost of Hamlet could tell a tale that would make: —

Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. Ibid.

Arrectae que horrore comae, et vox faucibus haesit. The hair stood up with horror, etc. — AEneid, 12:868.

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

Then a spirit passed before my face. It has been argued (Rosenmuller) that "a breath of air," and not "a spirit," is intended; but, in that ease, how are we to understand the expressions in the following verse: "it stood still," "the form thereof," "an image"? A breath of air, the very essence of which is to be in motion, cannot stand still, nor has it any "form," "appearance," or "image." Granted that the Hebrew ruakh (jwr) may mean like the Greek pneuma , and the Latin spiritus either an actual spirit, or a breath, a wind, it follows that, in every place where it occurs, we must judge by the context which is meant. Here certainly the context points to an actual living spirit, as what Eliphaz intended. Whether a spirit really appeared to him is a separate question. The whole may have been a vision; but certainly the impression left on Eliphaz was that he had had a communication from the spirit-world. The hair of my flesh stood up. Not the hair of his head only, but every hair on his whole body, stiffened, bristled, and rose up on end in horror (see the comment on ver. 14).

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

A spirit - An angel in visible shape, otherwise he could not have discerned it. Stood up - Through that excessive horror caused by so glorious, unusual, and terrible a presence.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

it made stand on end The spirit made the hair of my flesh (stand on end].

תסמר. That is an expression of a man whose hair stood on end.

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.