English Standard Version
Job 19:20
20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:20 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
- New International Version (NIV)I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
- New King James Version (NKJV)My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- New Living Translation (NLT)I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
Context of Job 19:20
18Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. 19All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 22Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
Read all of Job 19Job 19:20 word by word
בְּעוֹרִ֣י וּ֭בִבְשָׂרִי דָּבְקָ֣ה עַצְמִ֑י וָ֝אֶתְמַלְּטָ֗ה בְּע֣וֹר שִׁנָּֽי׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 19:20
- Job 30:30My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.
- Job 33:19"Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,
- Psalms 22:14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
- Psalms 32:3For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
- Psalms 38:3There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
- Psalms 102:3For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
- Lamentations 4:8Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as wood.
- Amos 2:4Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.
- Amos 7:5Then I said, "O Lord God, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!"
- Lamentations 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
- Lamentations 5:10Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.
Commentaries on Job 19:20
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 20My 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 20My 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…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 8-22Verses 8-22 How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 20escaped by the skin of my teeth: This figure of speech means a narrow escape. In Hebrew, it might also suggest that Job became as thin as a skeleton with a skull full of teeth.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2020. Extreme meagerness. The bone seemed to stick in the skin, being seen through it, owing to the flesh drying up and falling away from the bone. The Margin, "as to my flesh," makes this sense clearer. The English Version, however, expresses the same: "And to my flesh," namely, which has fallen away from the bone, instead of firmly covering it. skin of my teeth--proverbial. I have escaped with bare life; I am whole only with the skin of my teeth; that is…Read the comment
Topics related to Job 19:20
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 19
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries