complete verse (Job 4:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 4:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “Then, something blew me in my face,
    and then, my head (hair) stood on end.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A spirit went away from before me,
    and the hairs of my body stood erect.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The spirit passed-by my face and my small-fine-hairs stood.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 4:15

Eliphaz continues his narrative use of parallel lines. Verse 15 presents in line a the cause and line b the effect.

A spirit glided past my face: A spirit translates the Hebrew ruach, which does not likely refer to the spirit of God but to an eerie wind or breeze. In many languages the use of spirit without qualification will imply a bad spirit. If it were a disembodied spirit, it would be the only such usage in the Old Testament. However, in Eliphaz’s speech there may be a play on words here. The Hebrew verb translated glided past is used in Isaiah 21.1 to describe the movement of whirlwinds in the desert. Although the source of the wind is not disclosed, its purpose was clearly not evil in intent. Therefore something like breeze or breath is to be preferred; for example, “A breath of air brushed against my face” or “I felt air blow against my face.”

The hair of my flesh stood up is a natural reaction to a frightening experience. The word translated hair is the subject of various interpretations. As used here the term means a single hair, which, of course, in poetic discourse can be understood as a part standing for the whole. Some scholars suggest changing the Hebrew word for hair to get “horror” or “tempest.” Habel believes the parallelism of the text favors a reading that gives “whirlwind” and so says “A whirlwind made my flesh shiver.” However, it seems best to take line a as the cause of line b, and all other translations agree with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. In some languages the hair does not “stand up,” but the “skin gets cold” or “bumps form on the skin.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

textual location of Job 4:12-21

According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 4:12-21 should be located following Job 3:26. He explains:

“For many reasons the passage 4:12-21 should be read here, right after chapter 3, as the conclusion of Jobs opening speech. One may suppose that two pages of ancient papyrus or parchment containing the two equal halves of chapter 4 were accidentally interchanged in the course of the text’s transmission. In an oft-compared Babylonian composition about a pious sufferer (“I Shall Praise the Lord of Wisdom”) it is the complainant, not the would-be sage, who experiences a divine revelation. It is also Job the sufferer, not his companions, who receives a theophany near the end of the book. More important, in the ensuing chapters both Eliphaz and Job refer to Jobs claim to have enjoyed a revelation. Further, Eliphaz (in chapter 15) and Bildad (in chapter 25) cite the words of the revelation as Jobs, and Elihu, who engages only with the arguments of Job, quotes from it (33:15).”