Job 4:15

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

Job 4:15 Meaning and Commentary

Job 4:15

Then a spirit passed before my face
Which some interpret of a wind F17, 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, ( 1 Kings 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 F18; which has been usual at the sight of an apparition F19.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (xwr) "ventus", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Broughton.
F18 "Obstupui, steteruntque comae----". Virgil. Aeneid. l. 2. ver. 774. & l. 3. ver. 48. "arrectaeque horrore comae". Aeneid. 4. ver. 286. & l. 12. ver. 888.
F19 Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 665.

Job 4:15 In-Context

13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot.
15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end.
16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.