the Fourth Week of Advent
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King James Version
Job 19:20
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- CharlesEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
"My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped [death] by the skin of my teeth.
My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Whanne fleischis weren wastid, my boon cleuyde to my skyn; and `oneli lippis ben left aboute my teeth.
My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
I am skin and bones— just barely alive.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.
My bones stick to my skin and flesh; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
"I am so thin, my skin hangs loose on my bones. I have little life left in me.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaueth to my skinne, and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skinne of my teeth.
I am only skin and flesh. And I have gotten away only by the skin of my teeth.
My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaueth to my skinne and to my flesh, and I haue escaped with the skinne of my teeth.
My skin and my flesh cleave to my bones, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life.
Unto my skin and unto my flesh, have my bones cleaved, and I have escaped with the akin of my teeth.
The flesh being consumed, my bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.
My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bone cleaueth to my skinne and to my fleshe, onely there is left me the skinne about my teeth.
My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in my teeth.
My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
My bone clings on my skin and on my flesh; and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
My bone hangeth to my skynne, and the flesh is awaye, only there is left me the skynne aboute my teth.
"My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
"My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
bone: Job 30:30, Job 33:19-22, Psalms 22:14-17, Psalms 32:3, Psalms 32:4, Psalms 38:3, Psalms 102:3, Psalms 102:5, Lamentations 4:8
and to: or, as
and I am: Job 2:4-6, Job 7:5, Lamentations 3:4, Lamentations 5:10
Reciprocal: Job 2:5 - put forth Job 14:22 - his flesh Job 20:11 - bones Job 21:5 - be astonished Job 30:18 - By the great Job 33:21 - His flesh Psalms 109:24 - my flesh
Cross-References
Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?
Gill's Notes on the Bible
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,.... Or, "as to my flesh" o, as Mr. Broughton and others render the words; as his bones used to stick to his flesh, and were covered with it, now his flesh being consumed and wasted away with his disease, they stuck to his skin, and were seen through it; he was reduced to skin and bone, and was a mere skeleton, what with the force of his bodily disorder, and the grief of his mind through the treatment he met with from God and men, see Lamentations 4:8;
and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth; meaning not, as some understand it, his lips, which covered his teeth; for those cannot be properly called the skin of them; rather the fine polish of the teeth, which fortifies them against the hurt and damage they would receive by what is ate and drank; though it seems best to interpret it of the skin of the gums, in which the teeth are set; and the sense is, that Job had escaped with his life, but not with a whole skin, his skin was broken all over him, with the sores and ulcers upon him, see Job 7:5; only the skin of his teeth was preserved, and so Mr. Broughton renders it, "I am whole only in the skin of my teeth"; everywhere else his skin was broken; so the Targum,
"I am left in the skin of my teeth.''
Some have thought that Satan, when he smote Job from head to feet with ulcers, spared his mouth, lips, and teeth, the instruments of speech, that he might therewith curse God, which was the thing he aimed at, and proposed to bring him to, by getting a grant from God to afflict him in the manner he did.
o בעורי ובבשרי "cuti meae ut carni meae", Tremellius, in one edition of his version.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh - The meaning of this probably is, “my skin and flesh are dried up so that the bone seems adhere to the skin, and so tht the form of the bone becomes visible.” It is designed to denote a state of great emaciation, and describes an effect which we often see.
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth - A very difficult expression, and which has greatly perplexed commentators, and on whose meaning they are by no means agreed. Dr. Good renders it, “and in the skin of my teeth am I dissolved;” but what that means is as difficult of explanation as the original. Noyes, “and I have scarcely escaped with the skin of my teeth.” Herde, (as translated by Marsh,) “and scarcely the skin in my teeth have I brought away as a spoil.” He says that “the figure is taken from the prey which wild beasts carry in their teeth; his skin is his poor and wretched body, which alone he had escaped with. His friends are represented as carnivorous animals which gnaw upon his skin, upon the poor remnant of life;” but the Hebrew will not bear this construction. Poole observes, quaintly enough, that it means, “I am scarcely sound and whole and free from sores in any part of my skin, except that of my jaws, which holdeth and covereth the roots of my teeth. This being, as divers observe, the devil’s policy, to leave his mouth untouched, that be might more freely express his mind, and vent his blasphemies against God, which he supposed sharp pain would force him to do.” Schultens has mentioned four different interpretations given to the phrase, none of which seems to be perfectly satisfactory. They are the following:
(1) That it means that the skin “about” the teeth alone was preserved, or the gums and the lips, so that he had the power of speaking, though every other part was wasted away, and this exposition is given, accompanied with the suggestion that his faculty of speech was preserved entire by Satan, in order that he might be “able” to utter the language of complaint and blasphemy against God.
(2) That he was emaciated and exhausted completely, “except” the skin about his teeth, that is, his lips, and that by them he was kept alive; that if it were not for them he could not breathe, but must soon expire.
(3) That the teeth themselves had fallen out by the force of disease, and that nothing was left but the gums. This opinion Schultens himself adopts. The image, be says, is taken from pugilists, whose teeth are knocked out by each other; and the meaning he supposes to be, that Job had been treated by his disease in the same manner. So violent had it been that he had lost all his teeth and nothing was left but his gums.
(4) A fourth opinion is, that the reference is to the “enamel” of the teeth, and that the meaning is, that such was the force and extent of his afflictions that all his teeth became hollow and were decayed, leaving only the enamel. It is difficult to determine the true sense amidst a multitude of learned conjectures; but probably the most simple and easy interpretation is the best. It may mean that he was “almost” consumed. Disease had preyed upon his frame until he was wasted away. Nothing was left but his lips, or his gums; he was just able to speak, and that was all. So Jerome renders it, delicta sunt tantummodo labia circa dentes meos. Luther renders it, und kann meine Zahne mit der Haut nicht bedecken - “and I cannot cover my teeth with the skin;” that is, with the lips.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 19:20. My bone cleaveth to my skin. — My flesh is entirely wasted away, and nothing but skin and bone left.
I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. — I have had the most narrow escape. If I still live, it is a thing to be wondered at, my sufferings and privations have been so great. To escape with the skin of the teeth seems to have been a proverbial expression, signifying great difficulty. I had as narrow an escape from death, as the thickness of the enamel on the teeth. I was within a hair's breadth of destruction; see on Job 19:11.
