Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
- KJV Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
- BSB Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
- NASB “Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.
- NLT A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A spirit passed before his face and his hair stood on end. The ghostly detail intensifies the supernatural aura Eliphaz claims for his insight.
Overview
Eliphaz reports a passing spirit and the bristling of his flesh, evoking the uncanny. The vagueness of this apparition stands in marked contrast to the clear self-revelation of the Lord later in the book. Faithful readers note that mysterious experiences must always be tested against God's revealed character and word, for not every spirit is to be trusted.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Heb 1:7Of the angels he says, “Who makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.”
- Luke 24:37–39But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
- Dan 5:6Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.
- Ps 104:4He makes his messengers winds; his servants flames of fire.
- Isa 13:8They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
- Isa 21:3–4Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see.
- Heb 1:14Aren’t they all serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
- Matt 14:26When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out for fear.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 4:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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