Lectionary Calendar
Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 4:15

This verse is not available in the MSG!

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

Christian Standard Bible®
I felt a draft on my face,and the hair on my body stood up.
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

12"A word came to me in secret— a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly. It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep. Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death—I shook from head to foot. A spirit glided right in front of me— the hair on my head stood on end. 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? Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels, So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths? These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices—gone without a trace. When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses— we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'"

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

Leviticus 26:18
"And if none of this works in getting your attention, I'll discipline you seven times over for your sins. I'll break your strong pride: I'll make the skies above you like a sheet of tin and the ground under you like cast iron. No matter how hard you work, nothing will come of it: No crops out of the ground, no fruit off the trees.
Leviticus 26:21
"If you defy me and refuse to listen, your punishment will be seven times more than your sins: I'll set wild animals on you; they'll rob you of your children, kill your cattle, and decimate your numbers until you'll think you are living in a ghost town.
1 Kings 16:7
That's the way it was with Baasha: Through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani, God 's word came to him and his regime because of his life of open evil before God and his making God so angry—a chip off the block of Jeroboam, even though God had destroyed him.
Psalms 59:11
Don't make quick work of them, God , lest my people forget. Bring them down in slow motion, take them apart piece by piece. Let all their mean-mouthed arrogance catch up with them, Catch them out and bring them down —every muttered curse —every barefaced lie. Finish them off in fine style! Finish them off for good! Then all the world will see that God rules well in Jacob, everywhere that God's in charge.
Hosea 1:4
Then God told him: "Name him Jezreel. It won't be long now before I'll make the people of Israel pay for the massacre at Jezreel. I'm calling it quits on the kingdom of Israel. Payday is coming! I'm going to chop Israel's bows and arrows into kindling in the valley of Jezreel."
Matthew 26:52
Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?"
Revelation 14:9
A third Angel followed, shouting, warning, "If anyone worships the Beast and its image and takes the mark on forehead or hand, that person will drink the wine of God's wrath, prepared unmixed in his chalice of anger, and suffer torment from fire and brimstone in the presence of Holy Angels, in the presence of the Lamb. Smoke from their torment will rise age after age. No respite for those who worship the Beast and its image, who take the mark of its name."

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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