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Jaw; Jawbone; Jaw Teeth

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jô , jô´bōn ( לחי , leḥı̄ , "cheek (bone)," "jaw (bone)"): In Job 41:2 , the Revised Version (British and American) gives "pierce his jaw through with a hook" for the King James Version "bore his jaw through with a thorn" (see HOOK; LEVIATHAN ). Psalm 22:15 , "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws (malḳōaḥ )," is descriptive of the effect of a fever or physical torture, a dryness and a horrible clamminess. ם , Malḳoḥayı̄m is an ancient dual form meaning the two jaws, and, metaphorically, ה , malḳoaḥ indicates that which is caught between the jaws, booty, prey, including captives (Numbers 31:11 , Numbers 31:26 , Numbers 31:32; Isaiah 49:24 f).

Figurative: (1) Of the power of the wicked, with a reference to Divine restraint and discipline: "I brake the jaws (Hebrew "great teeth") of the unrighteous" ( Job 29:17; Proverbs 30:14 ); compare Psalm 58:6 , "Break out the great teeth (maltā‛ōth , "jaw teeth") of the young lions, O Y ahweh." Let the wicked be deprived of their ability for evil; let them at least be disabled from mischief. Septuagint reads "God shall break," etc. (Compare Edmund Prys's Metrical Paraphrase of the Psalms , in the place cited.) "A bridle ... in the jaws of the peoples" (Isaiah 30:28; compare 2 Kings 19:28 ) is descriptive of the ultimate check of the Assyrian power at Jerusalem, "as when a bridle or lasso is thrown upon the jaws of a wild animal when you wish to catch and tame him" (G.A. Smith Isa , I, 235). Compare Ezekiel 29:4 (concerning Pharaoh); Ezekiel 38:4 (concerning Gog), "I will put hooks in (into) thy jaws." (2) Of human labor and trials, with a reference to the Divine gentleness: "I was to them as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws" ( Hosea 11:4 ), or 'take the yoke off their jaws,' as the humane driver eased the yoke with his hands or 'lifted it forward from neck to the jaws'; or it may perhaps refer to the removal of the yoke in the evening, when work is over.

Jawbone ( Judges 15:15 ). See RAMATH-LEHI .