Job 4:14-16

4:14 a trembling ¹  gripped me – and a terror! –

and made all my bones shake. ² 

4:15 Then a breath of air ³  passes ⁴  by my face;

it makes ⁵  the hair of my flesh stand up.

4:16 It stands still, ⁶ 

but I cannot recognize ⁷  its appearance;

an image is before my eyes,

and I hear a murmuring voice: ⁸ 

Job 37:1

37:1 At this also my heart pounds

and leaps from its place.

Mark 16:8

16:8 Then ⁹  they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. ¹⁰  And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Acts 9:6

9:6 But stand up ¹¹  and enter the city and you will be told ¹²  what you must do.”

[4:14]  ¹ tn The two words פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”) and רְעָדָה (rÿ’adah, “terror”) strengthen each other as synonyms (see also Ps 55:6). The subject of the verb קָרָא (qara’, “befall, encounter”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”); its compound subject has been placed at the end of the colon.

[4:14]  ² tn The subject of the Hiphil verb הִפְחִיד (hifkhid, “dread”) is פַּחַד (pakhad, “trembling”), which is why it is in the singular. The cognate verb intensifies and applies the meaning of the noun. BDB 808 s.v. פַּחַד Hiph translates it “fill my bones with dread.” In that sense “bones” would have to be a metonymy of subject representing the framework of the body, so that the meaning is that his whole being was filled with trembling.

[4:15]  ³ 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).

[4:15]  ⁴ 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.

[4:15]  ⁵ 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).

[4:16]  ⁶ tc The LXX has the first person of the verb: “I arose and perceived it not, I looked and there was no form before my eyes; but I only heard a breath and a voice.”

[4:16]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verb is to be classified as potential imperfect. Eliphaz is unable to recognize the figure standing before him.

[4:16]  ⁸ sn The colon reads “a silence and a voice I hear.” Some have rendered it “there is a silence, and then I hear.” The verb דָּמַם (damam) does mean “remain silent” (Job 29:21; 31:34) and then also “cease.” The noun דְּמָמָה (dÿmamah, “calm”) refers to the calm after the storm in Ps 107:29. Joined with the true object of the verb, “voice,” it probably means something like stillness or murmuring or whispering here. It is joined to “voice” with a conjunction, indicating that it is a hendiadys, “murmur and a voice” or a “murmuring voice.”

[16:8]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[16:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “they began to have trembling and bewilderment.”

[9:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “But arise.”

[9:6]  ¹² tn Literally a passive construction, “it will be told to you.” This has been converted to another form of passive construction in the translation.