Job 13:14
in Job 13Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hand?
KJV
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
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This verse in Job 13
Commentary
12 notes on this verseWherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth,.... Or bite my lips, to keep in my words, and refrain from speaking?
This site's exposition
Be silent, and I will speak
on Job 13:13-14
"Be silent, and I will speak" asks the friends for the silence Job has already called their wisdom, so that he may address God. The words "take my life in my own hands" are proverbial for staking everything on one desperate act, though it cost his life.
This site's exposition
take my life in my own hands
Clarke reads the verse as a proverb for putting life at risk on the justice of a case, and sets it beside 1 Samuel 28:21. For the first half, where the Hebrew has flesh in the teeth, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture a wild beast holding its prey.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence · Written before 523.
proposed
Hear also from him what tribulations he bore and yet did not depart from the love of God: "Why have I taken my flesh in my teeth, and why is my soul laid in my hands? Even if He slay me, it is for Him …
As those, Job says, who devour themselves have a consolation, as those who bite their flesh feel a certain relief in their sufferings, so it is the same with me, when I express myself in these terms, "And I may put my life in my hands." Consider, above all, this sentence, "I may put my life in my hand." This means, I will destroy myself! Like those who destroy themselves, I also find a consolation; and that is my consolation, if God does not cause me to perish, my consolation is to give expression to my thoughts.
The Medieval Church2 voices
His friends have accused Job of two things: impatience and ostentation, (4:2 and 7) both of which he excludes from himself so that he might not seem in the following disputation to speak either from anger or from pride. Observe that impatience comes from an …
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? In Holy Scripture 'teeth' are sometimes used to be understood for the holy preachers, and sometimes for the interior senses. Thus of the holy preachers it is said to the Bride, Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Wherefore - And this may be a reason of his desire of liberty of speech, because he could hold his tongue no longer, but must needs tear himself to pieces, if he had not some vent for his grief. The phrase having his life in his hand, denotes a condition extremely dangerous.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He comforts himself in God, and still keeps hold of his confidence in him. What he depends upon God for--justification and salvation, the two great things we hope for through Christ.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth - A proverbial expression. I risk every thing on the justice of my cause. I put my life in my hand, 1Sa 28:21. I run all hazards; I am fearless of the consequences.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
A proverb for, "Why should I anxiously desire to save my life?" [EICHORN]. The image in the first clause is that of a wild beast, which in order to preserve his prey, carries it in his teeth.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth - The meaning of the proverbial expressions in this verse is not very clear. They indicate a state of great danger; but the exact sense of the proverbs it has been difficult to ascertain. Some have supposed that the phrase “to take the flesh in the teeth,” is significant of a state of famine, where a man dying from this cause would cease upon his own flesh and devour it; others, that it refers to the contentions of voracious animals, struggling for a piece of flesh; others, that it refers to the fact that what is borne in the teeth is liable to be dropped, and that Job regarded his life as in such a perilous condition. Schultens regards it as denoting that bold courage in which a man exposes his life to imminent peril. He supposes that it is to be taken in connection with the previous verse, as intimating that he would go forward and speak at any rate, whatever might be the result. He translates it, “Whatever may be the event, I will take my flesh in my teeth, and my life in my hand.” In this interpretation Rosenmuller concurs. Noyes renders it, “I will count it nothing to bear my flesh in my teeth.” Good, “Let what may - I will carry my flesh in my teeth; ‘ and supposes that the phrase is equivalent to saying, that he would incur any risk or danger. The proverb he supposes is taken from the contest which so frequently takes place between dogs and other carnivorous quadrupeds, when one of them is carrying a bone or piece of flesh in his mouth, which becomes a source of dispute and a prize to be fought for. The Vulgate renders it, “Quare lacero carnes meus dentibus meis.” The Septuagint, “Taking my flesh in my teeth, I will put my life in my hand.” It seems to me, that the language is to be taken in connection with the previous verse, and is not to be regarded as an interrogatory, but as a declaration. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
my flesh up into my teeth to afflict myself and force myself to silence?
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
and let come upon me what may Whatever comes upon me because of the sin of my outcry, let it come upon me and do not care. For what reason must I bring up and hold..
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַל־ | ʾal- | concerning | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מָ֤ה׀ | mah | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| אֶשָּׂ֣א | ʾesa' | will I take | H5375 → | 656 times |
| בְשָׂרִ֣י | vesari | flesh my | H1320 → | 270 times |
| בְשִׁנָּ֑י | veshinai | in teeth my | H8127 → | 55 times |
| וְ֝נַפְשִׁ֗י | venafshi | and life my | H5315 → | 754 times |
| אָשִׂ֥ים | ʾasim | will I put? | H7760 → | 584 times |
| בְּכַפִּֽי׃ | bekhapi | in palm my | H3709 → | 192 times |
עַל־concerning
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מָ֤ה׀what?
mahH4100 →752 times
אֶשָּׂ֣אwill I take
ʾesa'H5375 →656 times
בְשָׂרִ֣יflesh my
vesariH1320 →270 times
בְשִׁנָּ֑יin teeth my
veshinaiH8127 →55 times
וְ֝נַפְשִׁ֗יand life my
venafshiH5315 →754 times
אָשִׂ֥יםwill I put?
ʾasimH7760 →584 times
בְּכַפִּֽי׃in palm my
bekhapiH3709 →192 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Judges 12:3When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to…
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 19:5
He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Samuel 28:21
When the woman came to Saul and saw how distraught he was, she said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hands and did as you…
- 1 Samuel 19:5
Through
Psalms 119:109I constantly take my life in my hands, yet I do not forget Your law.
it leads to
- Judges 12:3
When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Judges 12:3
Through
1 Samuel 19:5He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against…
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 11:13
But Saul ordered, “No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has worked salvation in Israel.”
- 1 Chronicles 11:14
But Eleazar and David stationed themselves in the middle of the field and defended it. They struck down the Philistines, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
- Judges 9:17
for my father fought for you and risked his life to deliver you from the hand of Midian,
- Matthew 27:4
“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”
- 1 Samuel 20:32
“Why must he be put to death?” Jonathan replied. “What has he done?”
- 1 Samuel 11:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 13:13-14B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.