A hair’s breadth (Judges 20:16)

Picture description: Hair
Picture copyright: V. Gilbert and Arlisle F. Beers

bible verse

“Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.” (Judges 20:16)

meaning

A very small space or short distance.

origin and application

It follows from the story of “arise as one man” that people of all Israelite tribes gathered to go against the Benjamin tribe after an Israelite concubine was raped in the place of Benjamin. The Israelites asked the people of Benjamin to surrender those wicked men, but they would not listen. At once, Benjaminites mobilized twenty-six thousand soldiers, amongst them were seven hundred chosen ones who were so skillful that they could hurl a stone at “a hair’s breadth.”
A hair’s breadth means a very small space or short distance. Usually when someone just misses a target, or loses a race by a tiny margin, he says, “I missed by a hair’s breadth.”

example

The gang escaped the police at a hair’s breadth.