Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Job 4:15
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
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. return to 'Top of Page'
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