"... Job 4:9 belongs to known textual traditions that adopt the expression ‘breath of God’ as an instrument of destruction. Of course, here we have to reckon with the possibility that the authors of Job 4:9 could also have had the other texts of the Hebrew Bible that use this expression in view. On the other hand, the following few observations may indicate that the authors of Job 4:9 deliberately employed - although with entirely different meaning - the widely used motif of God’s breath as a life-giving entity ... Significantly, this creation background is in view even in the texts where these terms are used to report God’s destructive power (Psalm 18:16; Isaiah 40:7; Hosea 13:15). It is noteworthy that Job 33:4 clearly relates the breath of God to human life as it shows the authors were probably aware of the narrative of the creation of man as presented in Genesis 2:7. The difficulty with this argument is that the speeches of Elihu (Job 32–37) are a later addition to the dialogue section of the book of Job, and therefore they cannot be accepted as evidence to support the case for the connection between Job 4:9 and Genesis 2:7. Helpful in this regard is that Job 33.4 is not the only instance in the book in which the breath of God is depicted in this manner: another example, i.e., Job 27:3, explicitly recalls the creation imagery similar to that represented in Genesis 2:7. These references strongly suggest that the authors of the book of Job were aware of the notion of God’s breath as a life-giving instrument ..."