New English Translation
Job 19:20
20My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only 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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped 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.
Context of Job 19:20
18Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, they scoff at me. 19All my closest friends detest me; and those whom I love have turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, for the hand of God has struck me. 22Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated 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 has turned dark on me; my body is hot with fever.
- Job 33:19Or a person is chastened by pain on his bed, and with the continual strife of his bones,
- Psalms 22:14My strength drains away like water; all my bones are dislocated; my heart is like wax; it melts away inside me.
- Psalms 32:3When I refused to confess my sin, my whole body wasted away, while I groaned in pain all day long.
- Psalms 38:3My whole body is sick because of your judgment; I am deprived of health because of my sin.
- Psalms 102:3For my days go up in smoke, and my bones are charred like a fireplace.
- Lamentations 4:8Now their appearance is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up, like tree bark. ט (Tet)
- Amos 2:4This is what the Lord says: “Because Judah has committed three covenant transgressions – make that four! – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They rejected the Lord’s law; they did not obey his commands. Their false gods, to which their fathers were loyal, led them astray.
- Amos 7:5I said, “Sovereign Lord, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is too weak!”
- Lamentations 3:4He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones.
- Lamentations 5:10Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.
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
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