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Sunday, July 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Christian Standard Bible ®

Job 4:15

I felt a draft on my face,and the hair on my body stood up.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Angel (a Spirit);   Dream;   Faith;   Vision;   Thompson Chain Reference - Hair;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Visions;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Trance;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Spirit;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Prophet;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Holy Spirit;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Job;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Apparition;   Smith Bible Dictionary - El'iphaz;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Hair;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Revelation;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
King James Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
English Standard Version
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
New Century Version
A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
New English Translation
Then a breath of air passes by my face; it makes the hair of my flesh stand up.
Amplified Bible
"Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my skin stood on end!
New American Standard Bible
"Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
World English Bible
Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And the wind passed before me, and made the heares of my flesh to stande vp.
Legacy Standard Bible
Then a spirit swept by my face;The hair of my flesh bristled up.
Berean Standard Bible
Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
Contemporary English Version
and my hair stood on end, as a wind blew past my face.
Complete Jewish Bible
Then a spirit passed in front of my face; the hair of my flesh stood on end.
Darby Translation
And a spirit passed before my face—the hair of my flesh stood up—
Easy-to-Read Version
A spirit passed by my face. The hair on my body stood up!
George Lamsa Translation
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
Good News Translation
A light breeze touched my face, and my skin crawled with fright.
Lexham English Bible
And a spirit glided before my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.
Literal Translation
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And when the wynde passed ouer by me, the hayres of my flesh stode vp.
American Standard Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
Bible in Basic English
And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The winde passed by before my presence, and made the heeres of my fleshe to stande vp.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then a spirit passed before my face, that made the hair of my flesh to stand up.
King James Version (1611)
Then a spirit passed before my face: the haire of my flesh stood vp.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.
English Revised Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And whanne the spirit `yede in my presence, the heiris of `my fleisch hadden hidousnesse.
Update Bible Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
Webster's Bible Translation
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
New King James Version
Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up.
New Living Translation
A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.
New Life Bible
A spirit passed by my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
New Revised Standard
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then, a spirit, over my face, floated along, The hair of my flesh bristled-up:
Douay-Rheims Bible
And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
Revised Standard Version
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
Young's Literal Translation
And a spirit before my face doth pass, Stand up doth the hair of my flesh;
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up.

Contextual Overview

12A word was brought to me in secret;my ears caught a whisper of it. 13Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,when deep sleep comes over men, 14fear and trembling came over meand made all my bones shake. 15I felt a draft on my face,and the hair on my body stood up.16A figure stood there,but I could not recognize its appearance;a form loomed before my eyes.I heard a whispering voice: 17“Can a mortal be righteous before God?Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” 18If God puts no trust in his servantsand he charges his angels with foolishness, 19how much more those who dwell in clay houses,whose foundation is in the dust,who are crushed like a moth! 20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;they perish forever while no one notices. 21Are their tent cords not pulled up?They die without wisdom.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a spirit: Psalms 104:4, Matthew 14:26, Luke 24:37-39, Hebrews 1:7, Hebrews 1:14

the hair: Isaiah 13:8, Isaiah 21:3, Isaiah 21:4, Daniel 5:6

Reciprocal: Luke 1:12 - he Acts 10:3 - saw

Cross-References

Genesis 4:24
If Cain is to be avenged seven times over,then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times!
Leviticus 26:18
“But if after these things you will not obey me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins.
Leviticus 26:21
“If you act with hostility toward me and are unwilling to obey me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins.
Leviticus 26:24
then I will act with hostility toward you; I also will strike you seven times for your sins.
Leviticus 26:28
I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins.
1 Kings 16:7
But through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani the word of the Lord also had come against Baasha and against his house because of all the evil he had done in the Lord’s sight. His actions angered the Lord, and Baasha’s house became like the house of Jeroboam, because he had struck it down.
Psalms 59:11
Do not kill them; otherwise, my people will forget.By your power, make them homeless wanderersand bring them down,Lord, our shield.
Psalms 79:12
Pay back sevenfold to our neighborsthe reproach they have hurled at you, Lord.
Proverbs 6:31
Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much;he must give up all the wealth in his house.
Ezekiel 9:4
“Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the Lord said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.”

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then a spirit passed before my face,.... Which some interpret of a wind q, 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 r; which has been usual at the sight of an apparition s.

q רוח "ventus", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Broughton. r "Obstupui, steteruntque comae----". Virgil. Aeneid. l. 2. ver. 774. & l. 3. ver. 48. "arrectaeque horrore comae". Aeneid. 4. ver. 286. & l. 12. ver. 888. s Vid. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 665.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.


 
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