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Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Job 4:15

Then a breath of air passes by my face; it makes the hair of my flesh stand 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

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.
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 "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it. 13 In the troubling thoughts of the dreams in the night when a deep sleep falls on men, 14 a trembling gripped me—and a terror!— and made all my bones shake. 15 Then a breath of air passes by my face; it makes the hair of my flesh stand up. 16 It stands still, but I cannot recognize its appearance; an image is before my eyes, and I hear a murmuring voice: 17 "Is a mortal man righteous before God? Or a man pure before his Creator? 18 If God puts no trust in his servants and attributes folly to his angels, 19 how much more to those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth? 20 They are destroyed between morning and evening; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. 21 Is not their excess wealth taken away from them? They die, yet without attaining 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 as much, then Lamech seventy-seven times!"
Leviticus 26:18
"‘If, in spite of all these things, you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.
Leviticus 26:21
"‘If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins.
Leviticus 26:24
I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you seven times on account of your sins.
Leviticus 26:28
I will walk in hostile rage against you and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.
1 Kings 16:7
The prophet Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord the message predicting the downfall of Baasha and his family because of all the evil Baasha had done in the sight of the Lord . His actions angered the Lord (including the way he had destroyed Jeroboam's dynasty), so that his family ended up like Jeroboam's.
Psalms 59:11
Do not strike them dead suddenly, because then my people might forget the lesson. Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down, O Lord who shields us!
Psalms 79:12
Pay back our neighbors in full! May they be insulted the same way they insulted you, O Lord!
Proverbs 6:31
Yet if he is caught he must repay seven times over, he might even have to give all the wealth of his house.
Ezekiel 9:4
The Lord said to him, "Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced 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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