BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH: JOB'S NARROW ESCAPE FROM SUFFERING

BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Job 19:20 20I am nothing but skin and bones; I have
escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The FencedWay
Job 19:8
W.F. Adeney
I. GOD HAS A RIGHT TO FENCE UP OUR WAY. Job's complaint is sad,
but it does not here indicate an injustice. It is hard to be checkedand
thwarted. Still God is our Master, and he has a right to choose ourinheritance
for us, setting us in a large place, or in a narrow way, as he thinks best. When
we complain, we forgetthat our will is not the supreme arbiter of our destiny.
If God stops our path we have to remember that we are on his land, and have
no right of way acrossit. When, in his bounty, he sets us free to roam overhis
domain, this is a favour for which we may well give thanks; it is no privilege
that we can demand. The opportunities of life, and our freedom to use them,
are given by God; and he who gives may withhold.
II. GOD MAY FENCE UP OUR WAY TO PREVENT US FROM
STRAYING. We blunder in the darkness. There are precipices over which we
may fall, jungles in which we may become victims to prowling enemies, By-
path Meadows thatmay lead us to Doubting Castle. Therefore Godshuts us

in. We are annoyed at the restraint, but it is for our soul's preservation.
Liberty is not always good. Godsees whenit may be abused; then in his great
mercy he withdraws it. Thus the ambitious man fails to reachthe giddy height
from which he would soonbe flung headlong to ruin. Business does not bring
one in the wealth that was expected, for God sees that money is becoming an
idol. Mary delights are shut off, and a man looks overthe fence with great
envy towards them; but God knows that they would be poison and death to
him.
III. GOD SOMETIMES FENCESUP OUR WAY FOR DISCIPLINE OR
PUNISHMENT. We feelourselves checkedand hindered on every side. Our
busy activity is stopped. Even our gooddesigns are frustrated. We find it hard
to accountfor such treatment. Possiblyit is just the punishment of our sins.
This has come not as direct pain and loss, but as hindrance and failure. We
feel like the Egyptians when their chariot-wheels stuck in the bed of the sea.
But it may be that the cause lies not so much in sin as in a need of wholesome
discipline. Perhaps we canserve God better by patient endurance than by
vigorous activity. Then what looks like failure is really the divinely chosen
method of success. He fences up our way that we quay learn to serve by
waiting.
IV. GOD WHO FENCESUP OUR WAY ALSO OPENS IT. The fence is but
a temporary structure - not a wall. God checks us for a seasonthat we may
use our liberty, when it is restored, with the more enthusiastic energy. While
he is fencing up one way he is opening out a new way. We wonder why we are
hindered, but if we would but lift up our eyes we might see anotherpath,
leading us to a far more noble and Christ-like service than any the path that
has been stopped pointed to. Meanwhile let us not complain that our way is
hopelesslyfencedup till we are quite brought to a standstill. Our fears are
premature. The Norwegianfiord seems to be completely lockedin by the
mountains, and the ship appears to be making straight for the cliffs till a point
is reachedwhich suddenly reveals a new expanse of water. We must proceed
with the duty within our power, and then the future will open out as we
approachit. - W.F.A.

Biblical Illustrator
And I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:20
A narrow escape
T. De Witt Talmage.
Job had it hard. What with boils, and bereavements, and bankruptcy, and a
foolish wife, he wished he was dead. His flesh was gone, and his bones were
dry. His teeth wastedawayuntil nothing but the enamel seemedleft. He cries
out, "I am escapedwith the skinof my teeth." There has been some difference
of opinion about this passage. St. , and Schultens, and Doctors Goodand Peele
and Barnes, have all tried their forceps on Job's teeth. You deny my
interpretation, and say, "What did Jobknow about the enamel of the teeth?"
He knew everything about it. Dentalsurgery is almost as old as the earth. The
mummies of Egypt, thousands of years old, are found today with gold filling in
their teeth. Ovid, and Horace, and Solomon, and Moses wrote aboutthese
important factors ofthe body. To other provoking complaints, Job, I think,
had added an exasperating toothache;and putting his hand againstthe
inflamed face, he says, "I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth." A very
narrow escape,you say, for Job's body and soul; but there are thousands of
men who make just as narrow escape fortheir soul. There was a time when
the partition betweenthem and ruin was no thickerthan a tooth's enamel; but
as Job finally escaped, so have they.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
An Appeal for Pity
R. Green
Job 19:1-21

Then Job answeredand said,…
Job is brought lowerand lowerBy the words of those from whom he might
have expecteda true consolation. He at length declares they "vex" his "soul,"
and "break" him "in pieces with words" He appeals for freedom. He would
be let atone, for, as he had sorrowfully said, "miserable comforters are ye all.
The greatunderlying teaching is the insufficiency of those views of human
suffering which find its cause only in judgment upon wrong-doing. Job, the
typical sufferer - typical for all future sufferers - undergoes the painfulness of
being assailedby helpers who have but a partial and very imperfect view of all
the circumstances ofhis case. And he appeals to them for ease.His cry to them
is also a cry to Heaven for relief.
I. His appeal for pity is based ON THE GROUND OF THE
WRONGFULNESS OF HIS ACCUSATION. Behold, I cry out of wrong." His
friends have setthemselves againsthim. They have become his judges rather
than his consolersorvindicators. They "reproach" him and make themselves
"strange" to him; they "magnify" themselves againsthim. They try to plead
his reproachagainsthim. It is the way of the imperfectly instructed human
helper, and more and more clearly makes plain the necessityfor a voice to be
raisedon behalf of the sufferer that shall be of one better instructed.
II. But the appeal is urged ON THE GROUND OF THE SEVERITY OF HIS
SUFFERINGSJobacknowledges his affliction to be of God, and he most
tenderly and touchingly refers to the severalfeatures of his suffering. He cries
out of wrong; he has no impartial and just hearing. He is encompassedby
darkness from which he cannot escape;his honour is beclouded; his substance
is destroyed; his hope has perished; he is dealt with as an enemy; his
acquaintances are estranged;he is forgottenby his best friends; he is treated
with indignity in his own home; he is offensive even to his wife; even young

children despise him and speak againsthim - "they whom I loved are turned
againstme." Through the severity of his disease he is wastedto a skeleton;his
"bone cleaveth" to his "skin." Surelythis is a call for pity. Yet professed
friends canstand by and argue with such a sufferer, seeking to prove his
guiltiness and affirming all this to be the just punishment of his sin.
III. He makes his further appeal to their pity ON THE GROUND OF
FRIENDSHIP. "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends!" It
is reasonable to expect that professedfriends will at leastshow pity to him for
whom they have declaredtheir greatfriendship.
IV. His final appealto them is ON THE GROUND OF HIS AFFLICTION
BEING THE STROKE OF GOD. "The hand of Godhath touched me."
Against the Almighty he cannot hope to contend. He is crushed under the
Almighty's power. This lowly confessiondoes notabate the calm inward
assurance ofpersonalintegrity. But the solution of the mysterious Divine ways
is wanting. He endeavours to abide in patience. But human sympathy should
strengthen the sufferer under the pressure of the Divine hand, and not add to
the alreadyexcessive weightofhis calamities. "Why do ye persecute me as
God?" To whom should a sufferer turn if not to his friends? How obvious the
office of friendship at such a time:
1. To sympathize.
2. To seek to ease the burden of the sufferer.
3. To strengthen by kindness and pity. - R.G.

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Unconquerable Convictions
Job 19:1-29
E. Johnson
Job feels bitterly hurt by the speeches ofEliphaz and Bildad, and pleads, in
face of their harsh constructions, for compassionin his unutterable sufferings.
At the same time, he raises himself to bolder confidence in God's help than
ever before. He expressesthe definite hope that, if not on this side the grave,
then on the other side, a justification awaits him by the personalappearance
of God.
I. INTRODUCTION:INDIGNANT CENSURE OF HIS FRIENDS AS
MALICIOUS SUSPECTERSOF HIS INNOCENCE. (Vers. 1-5.)"How long
will ye trouble my soul, and crush me with words?" "Tentimes," he says,
speaking in round numbers, i.e. again and again, have they slandered him by
attacks onh-is innocence;they are not ashamedto deafen him with their
revilings. It is true, he againconfesses(Job6:24), he has sinned, but his sin
remains with him alone;he is answerable to God alone, not to their unfeeling
judgment. Is it their desire to magnify themselves - to play the part of great
speakers andadvocates,and bring home to him his disgrace by ingenious
pleas? Vanity and self-conceitare at the bottom of much censoriousness;and
Job here lays his finger upon the moral weaknessofhis self-constituted
judges.
II. LAMENT OVER THE SUFFERING CAUSED HIM BY GOD. (Vers. 6-
12.)God has wrongedhim, and surrounded him with his nets, as a hunter
takes his prey, depriving it of all means of escape (ver. 6). The sufferer cries
out, "Violence!" but no answeris given; and there is no justice in response to
his cry for help (ver. 7). His wayis fencedin, and darkness is on his paths (ver.
8; comp. Job 3:23; Job 13:27;Lamentations 3:7, 9; Hosea 2:6). God has
stripped him of his honour and of his fair esteemin the eyes of men, and taken
awaythe crownfrom his head (ver. 9; comp. Job 29:14; Lamentations 5:16).

"Honour ' and the "crown" are two expressions forthe same thing (Isaiah
61:10;Isaiah 62:3). God pulls him down on every side, like a building devoted
to destruction; roots out the hope of his restoration, like a tree (ver. 10). His
warlike bands - wounds, pains, and woes of every kind - come on, and make
their way againsthim as againsta besiegedfortress (vers. 11, 12; comp. Job
16:14). All this is a true description of the thoughts of the heart from which
Divine help has been withdrawn. It is a sore conflict, none sorer, when the
mind is driven in its agony to view God as an end my, treating us
unmercifully, willing neither to hear nor to help. Job is tempted to think God
unjust; one who promises the forgiveness ofsins, yet does not remove the
penalty; promises his presence to the suffering, yet seems not to be touched by
our woes - nay, even to delight in them. "In so greatand glowing flames of hell
we must look to Christ alone, who was made in all things like to his brethren,
and was tempted, that he might succourthem that are tempted" (Brenz).
III. LAMENT OVER THE SUFFERINGCAUSED HIM BY MAN. (Vers. 13-
20.)In such crises we turn to friendship for solace. Butto Jobthis is denied. In
six different forms he mentions his kindred and friends, only to complain of
their coldness and alienation(vers. 13, 14). His domestics, too (ver. 15), to
whom he had doubtless been a kind master, are become strange to him. His
servant does not answerwhen he calls so that he is obliged to change parts
with him, and beg his help as a favour (ver. 16)His breath and diseasedbody
make him offensive even to his wife, and sons, or "brethren' (ver. 17). The
impudent little boys of the street, like those who mockedElisha (2 Kings 2:23,
sqq.), make a butt of him, indulging in sarcastictaunts when he rises to speak
(ver. 18). His bosom-friends abhor him, and those whom he had loved -
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar - turn against him as violent opponents (ver. 19).
His bones cleave to his skin and flesh, can be seenand felt through his
emaciatedflesh, and only the skinof his teeth, the thin film, has escapedthe
ravages ofhis fearful mainly. He can only just speak still, without his mouth
being filled with boils and matter, as in the last stage of the disease (ver. 20)
Friends often fail in the time of sorestdistress;they are summer-birds, and
pass awaywhen the colderweathersets in. Men are liars, fickle as the wind.
Their alienation is ascribedto God, because he has causedthe distress;if he
had not causedthe distress, they would have remained. Here, again, we are

reminded that the child of God may be called to be conformed to the image of
the Saviour's sufferings. He knew what it was to be desertedby all men, even
his dearestdisciples and closestadherents. So we are to learn to build no
confidence on man, but on the living God alone, whom faith can hold eternally
fast.
IV. RISE TO A BLESSED HOPE IN GOD, HIS ONLY REDEEMERAND
AVENGER. (Vers. 21-27.)This sectionis introduced by a woefulpetition to
his friends for compassion, "forthe hand of God has touched him," alluding
to the disease,which from its fearfulness was regardedas a stroke of God's
hand; and is it not the office of friendship to lend its hand to healor soothe
(ver. 21)? Why, on the contrary, do they persecute him as God, assuming an
authority that is superhuman, and so behaving unnaturally to him? They are
not "satisfiedwith his flesh," continually piercing and ploughing it with the
envenomed tooth of slander (ver. 22). The appealseems to be in vain, and he
turns once more to God(ver. 23, sqq.). Oh that his words were written down,
inscribed in a book or roll, that those to come might read the fervent, repeated
protestations of his innocence!That they were engravenwith an iron pen, or
castwith lead, so as to remain an indelible and eternal record! And, so long as
there is a God, this wish for the perpetuation of his testimony cannot be in
vain. It has been fulfilled. "In a hundred languages ofthe earth it announces
to this day. to all peoples this truth: the good man is not free from sufferings,
but in the consciousnessofhis innocence and in faith in God, providence, and
immortality, he finds a consolationwhich suffers him not to fail; and his
waiting for a glorious issue of God's dark leadings will certainly be crowned"
(Wohlforth). Ver. 25, "And I know that my Redeemerlives." "Redeemer"is
probably to be taken, not in the sense of blood-avenger, but in that of restorer
of my honour avengerof my honour; but the two meanings are connected.
"And as Last One will he rise upon the dust." God is here viewedas he who
will outlive all, especiallyin contrastto Job, now sinking into death. He will
rise, stand up for Job's defence and deliverance, on the dust in which he shall
soonbe laid. Ver. 26, "And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet from
my flesh I shall behold Eloah." He is thinking of the time when he shall be
treed from his wretchedsuffering and lacerated"flesh," and shall see Godas
a glorified spirit. Ver. 27, "Whom I shall behold for myself," i.e. in my own

person, "and my eyes shall see, and not a stranger." "My reins be consumed
within me," in longing after this glorious view. It is an expressionof the desire
of the deepest, tenderestpart of the man for this high consummation. To
discuss the different theologicalinterpretations of this passagedoes not come
within the scope of this part of the Commentary. Perhaps the best is that
which steers betweentwo extremes, and is adopted by many eminent
expositors of the present day. It is that Jobdoes not here express the hope of a
bodily resurrection after death, but of a contemplation of God in the other
world in a spiritually glorified state. It is the hope of immortality, rather than
that of resurrection, to which he rises, with such clearness and definiteness,
above that ancient Israelitish idea of Sheol, which he himself has admitted in
earlier discourses.It is a glorious confessionoffaith - one that, in a fuller
sense, may well be that of the catholic Church. And once more the property
and powerof faith are exhibited in all their lustre. It cleaves to life in the very
jaws of death; believes in heaven, even when hell is yawning at its feet; looks
to God as the Redeemereven amidst angerand judgment; detects beneath
seeming wrath his mercy; sees,under the appearance ofthe condemner, the
Redeemer. Faithis here the "substance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1).
The best consolationin the trouble of death is that Christ is risen from the
dead, and therefore we shall rise (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15.). Godgives
more to his servant, who shows himself inspired by such firm confidence
towards him, than he could ask or understand.
V. SOLEMN WARNING TO HIS FRIENDS TO DESIST FROMTHEIR
ATTACKS. (Vers. 28, 29.)"If ye think, How shall we persecute him? and (if
ye think) the root of the 'matter is found in me" - that is, if you think the
reasonfur my sufferings is solely to be found in myself, in my sin - "be afraid
of the sword," the avenging sword of God, "fur wrath falls in with the
offences ofthe sword," which may mean either that wrath is a punishment of
the sword, or that the punishments of the swordare with wrath - wrath
overtakes them. "That ye may know there is a judgment!" They knew this
already, and upon this expectationtheir own warnings had been founded. But
Job gives the thought an application to themselves. "Thatyou may know that
Gas exercisesjudgment on all the offences ofthe sword, which you do not own
nor fearin your case, andthat he severelypunishes them." Thus Jobopens

that wider view of the future, of that day of discrimination, when the first
shall be last, and the last first - the innocent shall be justified, and the
hypocrite exposed- which corrects the narrow dogmatism of the friends. God
punishes many sins in this life; but many are reservedfor the lastjudgment.
Temporal suffering may be escaped, andyet sure punishment may be in store.
On the other hand, temporal suffering may be innocently endured, but for the
true servant of God there will be final acknowledgmentand eternal honour. -
J.
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
My bone cleavethto my skin - My flesh is entirely wastedaway, and nothing
but skin and bone left.
I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth - I have had the most narrow escape.If
I still live, it is a thing to be wonderedat, my sufferings and privations have
been so great. To escapewith the skin of the teeth seems to have been a
proverbial expression, signifying greatdifficulty. I had as narrow an escape
from death, as the thickness ofthe enamel on the teeth. I was within a hair's
breadth of destruction; see on Job 19:11;(note).
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
My bone cleavethto 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 designedto denote a
state of greatemaciation, and describes aneffect which we often see.
And I am escapedwith 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. Goodrenders it, “and in the skin of my teeth am I
dissolved;” but what that means is as difficult of explanation as the original.
Noyes, “andI have scarcelyescapedwith the skinof my teeth.” Herde, (as
translated by Marsh,)“and scarcelythe skin in my teeth have I brought away
as a spoil.” He says that “the figure is takenfrom the prey which wild beasts
carry in their teeth; his skin is his poor and wretchedbody, which alone he
had escapedwith. His friends are representedas 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
scarcelysoundand whole and free from sores in any part of my skin, except
that of my jaws, which holdeth and covereththe 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 againstGod,
which he supposedsharp pain would force him to do.” Schultens has
mentioned four different interpretations given to the phrase, none of which
seems to be perfectly satisfactory. Theyare 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 powerof speaking, though every other
part was wastedaway, and this expositionis given, accompaniedwith the
suggestionthat his faculty of speechwas preservedentire by Satan, in order
that he might be “able” to utter the language of complaint and blasphemy
againstGod.
(2) That he was emaciatedand 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 soonexpire.
(3) That the teeth themselves had fallen out by the force of disease, andthat
nothing was left but the gums. This opinion Schultens himself adopts. The
image, be says, is takenfrom pugilists, whose teeth are knockedout by each
other; and the meaning he supposes to be, that Jobhad 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 easyinterpretation is the best.
It may mean that he was “almost” consumed. Diseasehadpreyed upon his
frame until he was wastedaway. Nothing was left but his lips, or his gums; he
was just able to speak, andthat 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 covermy teeth with the
skin;” that is, with the lips.
The Biblical Illustrator
Job 19:20
And I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth.
A narrow escape
Job had it hard. What with boils, and bereavements, and bankruptcy, and a
foolish wife, he wished he was dead. His flesh was gone, and his bones were
dry. His teeth wastedawayuntil nothing but the enamel seemedleft. He cries
out, “I am escapedwith the skinof my teeth.” There has been some difference
of opinion about this passage. St. Jerome, and Schultens, and Doctors Good
and Peele and Barnes, have all tried their forceps on Job’s teeth. You deny my
interpretation, and say, “What did Jobknow about the enamelof the teeth?”
He knew everything about it. Dentalsurgery is almost as old as the earth. The
mummies of Egypt, thousands of years old, are found today with gold filling in
their teeth. Ovid, and Horace, and Solomon, and Moses wrote aboutthese
important factors ofthe body. To other provoking complaints, Job, I think,
had added an exasperating toothache;and putting his hand againstthe
inflamed face, he says, “I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth.” A very
narrow escape,you say, for Job’s body and soul; but there are thousands of

men who make just as narrow escape fortheir soul. There was a time when
the partition betweenthem and ruin was no thickerthan a tooth’s enamel; but
as Job finally escaped, so have they. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh,.... Or, "as to my flesh"F15,as
Mr. Broughton and others render the words; as his bones used to stick to his
flesh, and were coveredwith it, now his flesh being consumedand wasted
awaywith his disease,they stuck to his skin, and were seenthrough it; he was
reduced to skin and bone, and was a mere skeleton, whatwith 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 escapedwith the skin of my teeth; meaning not, as some understand
it, his lips, which coveredhis teeth; for those cannot be properly calledthe
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 bestto interpret it of the skin of the gums, in which the teeth are set;
and the sense is, that Job had escapedwith his life, but not with a whole skin,
his skinwas 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 proposedto
bring him to, by getting a grant from God to afflict him in the manner he did.
Geneva Study Bible

My bone k cleavethto my skinand to my flesh, and I am escapedwith the
skin of my teeth.
(k) Besides these greatlossesand most cruel unkindness, he was touched in his
own person as follows.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Extreme meagerness. The bone seemedto stick in the skin, being seenthrough
it, owing to the flesh drying up and falling awayfrom 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 awayfrom
the bone, instead of firmly covering it.
skin of my teeth — proverbial. I have escapedwith bare life; I am whole only
with the skinof my teeth; that is, my gums alone are whole, the rest of the skin
of my body is broken with sores (Job7:5; Psalm102:5). Satanleft Job his
speech, in hope that he might therewith curse God.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith the skin
of my teeth.
Skin — Immediately, the fat and flesh next to the skin being consumed.
As — As closelyas it doth to these remainders of flesh which are left in my
inward parts.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
Job 19:20 My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith
the skinof my teeth.

Ver. 20. My bone cleavethto my skin] My skin is a bag of bones. I am become
a mere skeleton, and may well cry out, O my leanness, my leanness!So bare I
am grown, that little appearethin me but skinand bones, Isaiah 24:16. My
bone cleavethto my skin as to my flesh (so it may be read), that is, as once it
did in my flesh, when I was well lined within. Now, alas!I lie under a
miserable marasmus; and should therefore be pitied, as being a just objectof
your commiseration, Ossa subincurvis apparent arida lumbis.
And I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth] EscapedI am, and come off (as
out of a hot skirmish) with my life, and very little else. All I have left me whole
is the skin of my teeth; that is, of my gums, into which my teeth are engrafted;
the restof my body is all over a scab. The Vulgate rendereth it, My lips only
about my teeth are left me untouched. And Junius gives this gloss, Jobhad
nothing left him but the instrument of speech. These,saysome, the devil
purposely meddled not with, as hoping that therewith he would curse God.
Curse him he might with his heart only; but this would have pleasedthe devil
nothing so well as to hearhim do it with his tongue, Hoc fecisse Satanam
volunt, ut voluntatem caperet(Merc.). This is the conceitof some of the
Jewishdoctors. But it is better to ascribe this escape to the goodprovidence of
God than to the malice of the devil.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Job 19:20. My bone cleavethto my skin, &c.— My bones pierce through my
skin and my flesh, and my teeth slip out from my gums. Heath and Le Clerc.
Chappelow renders the clause, I am escapedwith a torn skin, or, with my skin
all over wrinkles, to denote his being quite emaciated. Schultens says, that to
escape withthe skin of the teeth, seems to be a proverbial expressionfor those
who lie beaten and covered with wounds from head to foot; and their mouth
being broken with blows, half dead, they are scarcelyable to breathe.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible

My bone, i.e. my bones; the singular collectivelyput for the plural, as Job2:5
Proverbs 15:30.
Cleavethto my skin, to wit, immediately, the fat and flesh next to the skin
being consumed. The sense is, I am worn to skin and bone: see the same
phrase Psalms 102:5.
And to my flesh; or, as (the particle and being often so used, as hath been
observedbefore) to my flesh, i.e. either as formerly it clave to my flesh, or as
near and as closelyas it doth to these remainders of flesh which are left in my
inward parts.
I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth; I am scarce soundand whole and free
from sores in any part of my skin, except that of my jaws, which holdeth and
covereththe roots of my teeth. This being, as divers observe, the devil’s policy,
to leave his mouth untouched, that he might more freely express his mind, and
vent his blasphemies againstGod, which he supposedsharp pain would force
him to do, and which he knew would be of pernicious consequencenotonly to
Job, but to others also.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
20. The skin of my teeth — In the laststages ofthe disease (elephantiasis)the
tongue and the gums are attacked, andthe mouth filled with ulcers so as to
render continuous speechimpossible. This terrible infliction he has (he means
to say) thus far escaped. The Germans call the gums zahn-fleisch, tooth-flesh,
which, indeed, is the rendering Hitzig gives. An old English physician (Smith)
in his “Portraitof Old Age,” (p. 69,)had hit upon the true sense ofthis
passage. “There are two parts of the teeth: the basis and the radix, that is, the
part which eminently appears white above the gums; this is that part which is
within the gums, and stands fixed in the mandibles. Now, by Job’s skin or
covering of his teeth, it is apparent he meant the gums which coverthe roots
of the teeth.” Wordsworthunnecessarilyregards it “as a proverbial paradox.”
Job is now in extremis. In the preceding chapter, while yet he could, he

chanted his requiem. The next stage ofhis disease means death. There is but
the skinof his teeth betweenhim and sure destruction.
JosephBenson's Commentaryof the Old and New Testaments
Job 19:20. My bone — Or, bones, the singular collectivelybeing put for the
plural: cleavethto my skin — Namely, immediately, the flesh next to the skin
being consumed. The sense is, Afflictions have so wastedme, that I am little
more than skin and bone. And to my flesh — Or, As to my flesh; as closelyas
it does to those remainders of my flesh, which are left in my inward parts.
And I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth — I am scarcelyfree from sores in
any part of my skin, exceptthat of my gums, which holdeth and covereththe
roots of my teeth. Schultens says, that “it seems to be a proverbial expression,
for those who lie beaten and coveredwith wounds from head to foot, and
whose mouths also are brokenwith blows, so that, being half dead, they are
scarcelyable to breathe.” Heath and Le Clerc render the verse, My bones
pierce through my skin, and my flesh and my teeth slip out from my gums.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
CHAPTER XIX.
Teeth. I am like a skeleton, so strangelyemaciated, and my flesh corrupted:
even my bones are not entire. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "I have escapedwith the
skin of my teeth." Only my gums are left. My bones cut the skin. Symmachus,
"I tore my skin with my teeth."
Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible
He continues to lose weightand he has barely eluded death thus far, just by
the "skinof his teeth". "The essenceis-"Ihave nothing but my bones and the
skin on my teeth"" (Strauss p. 187).
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
the skinof my teeth = the gums. See rendering below.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
of my teeth.
No JFB commentary on this verse.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(20) My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh in one indistinguishable
mass, and I have escapedwith the skin of my teeth, because the teeth have no
skin, or, as others explain, because the teeth have fallen out. This expression,
which is by no means clearin the context, has passedinto a proverb
expressive of a very narrow escape—ameaning which canonly by inference
be obtained from this place in Job.
Job 19:20 – Job Escapesby the Skin of His Teeth
Summary
Job has been summarizing his awful condition of rejectionby God and all his
friends and family. It is a wonder that he is still alive. He has escaped"by the
skin of my teeth."
Analysis
Mostpeople have heard or used the expression"by the skin of my teeth,"
meaning that surviving a dangerous experience was a very close call.
Probably, very few people know that the phrase originated from the book of
Job.

It is hard to know the origin of this phrase. Teethdo not have skin, though a
thin film that covers the teeth when one wakesin the morning could perhaps
be consideredas "skin on the teeth." And it certainly would be thin skin.
Maybe Jobis referring to his emaciatedcondition where his bones stick out
through his skinas in pictures of starving children in Africa or holocaust
survivors.
https://www.enterthebible.org/Controls/feature/tool_etb_resource_display/res
ourcebox.aspx?selected_rid=527&original_id=38
View all Sermons
My RedeemerLives (By The Skin Of My Teeth)
Contributed by William Akehurst on Jun 24, 2010
based on 8 ratings
(rate this sermon)
| 3,047 views
Scripture: Job19:20-27
Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Summary: JOB Declares - My RedeemerLives. Have you ever heard or used
this line? By the skin of my teeth…do you know where it comes from?

1 2
Next
2010.01.31.Sermon.MyRedeemerLives
By William Akehurst, BA
HSWC
Scriptures Referenced
JOB 19:20, 23-27
JOB 33:23-28
Romans 5:1-12, 18-19
Romans 8:1
Have you ever heard, or used this line? By the skin of my teeth…do you know
where it comes from?
Job 19:20 My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith
the skinof my teeth.
Job is one of the oldest books ofthe bible, the first in the canonof the Wisdom
books of the Old Testament, along with Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
While studying this book of Job, another interesting verse came to my
attention, and it has resounded in my mind, this one verse stood out above all
the rest. It put a knownsong back in my heart, I KNOW MY REDEEMER
LIVES…
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth:
LET THIS BE PRINTED SO IT CAN BE READ FOREVER
Job 19:23-27
23Ohthat my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

24Thatthey were gravenwith an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
MY REDEEMER LIVES AND WILL STAND IN THE LAST DAYS
25ForI know that my redeemerliveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth:
MY SOUL WILL SEE GOD, EVEN AFTER I DIE
26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God:
27WhomI shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;
though my reins be consumedwithin me.
Job 33:23-28
A RANSOM PAID
23If there be a messengerwith him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to
shew unto man his uprightness:
24Thenhe is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to
the pit: I have found a ransom.
A NEW BODY
25His flesh shall be fresherthan a child's: he shall return to the days of his
youth:
INTERCESSOR, THAT WE MIGHT BE CLOTHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
26He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall
see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.
REPENTENCE REQUIRED
27He lookethupon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that
which was right, and it profited me not;
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DELIVERENCE, REDEMPTION BYTHE REDEEMER
28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the
light.
Romans 5:1-12
JUSTIFIED BY THIS FAITH IN THE REDEEMER
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have accessby faith into this grace whereinwe stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
REGARDLESS OF OUR CIRCUMSTANCES, OUR STATE
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:knowing that tribulation
workethpatience;
4 And patience, experience;and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
WE COULD NOT DO IT OF OUR OWN STRENGTH
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly.
7 For scarcelyfor a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good
man some would evendare to die.
CHRIST DIED FOR SINNERS
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.

THE WAGES OF SIN IS PAID, BY HIS BLOOD
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be savedfrom
wrath through him.
WE ARE RECONCILED TO GOD, BYTHE DEATH OF JESUS, AND HIS
RESURRECTION
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciledto God by the death of
his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
ATONEMENT
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom we have now receivedthe atonement.
SIN BEGAN WITH ADAM IN EDEN
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin enteredinto the world, and death by sin; and
so death passedupon all men, for that all have sinned:
Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men
to condemnation; even so by the righteousness ofone the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life.
ADAM’S DISOBEDIENCE = SIN. CHRIST’S
OBEDIENCE=REDEMPTION
Romans 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnationto them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Jesus, myredeemer, shedhis blood for my sins.
Jesus, myredeemer, diedon the cross inmy place, formy punishment
Jesus, myredeemer, wentto the tomb to satisfymy death

Jesus, myredeemerlives, androse from that grave
Jesus, myredeemerlives, andI too shalllive eternally because Ibelieve that
Jesus, MyRedeemer, LIVES.
* * * * *
SONG: LYRICS
My RedeemerLives, NicoleC. Mullen
Who taught the sun where to standin the morning
Who told the oceanyoucanonly come this far?
Who showedthe moonwhere to hide 'til evening
Whose words alone cancatcha falling star?
WellI know my Redeemerlives; Iknow my Redeemerlives
All of creationtestify; This life within me cries
I know my Redeemerlives
The very same Godthat spins things in orbit
He runs to the weary, the wornand the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me whenI'm broken
They conquereddeathto bring me victory
Now I know my Redeemerlives; Iknow my Redeemerlives
Let all creationtestify; Letthis life within me cry
I know my Redeemer, He lives
To take awaymy shame; And He lives foreverI'll proclaim
Thatthe payment for my sin; Was the precious life He gave
But now He's alive; And there's an empty grave.

And I know my Redeemer, He lives; Iknow my Redeemerlives
Let all creationtestify; This life within me cries
I know my Redeemerlives
by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan
"I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth"
The still-popular term "by the skin of my teeth" is usually used to describe "a
very close miss," or"in the nick of time." Although most who use the term
may not realize it, "I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth" originated from
translations of the Holy Bible.
"19:20 My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith
the skinof my teeth." (Job 19:20 KJV)
Many are aware that teeth don't actually have skin, so some wonder if the
Bible is mistaken, but it isn't - at leastthe actualScriptures in Hebrew are not
mistaken. The Hebrew word used there, pronounced awr, is used throughout
the Scriptures for skin that covers flesh (see also Where Is Your Tabernacle?
and What Was In The Heart Of Job's Tabernacle?).
Job's reference is to either the gums, which are "skinof the teeth" that cover
the roots of the teeth, or the lips which are the "skin of the teeth" that cover
the crowns of the teeth. The severe illness and infections that Sataninflicted
upon Job (including obvious dental infections i.e. "My breath is strange to my

wife")causedhim to lose his teeth - from which he escapedwith only the
"skinof his teeth" - his gums and lips.
Satandid not cause Jobto lose the ability to speak with the "skinof his teeth"
however. The entire test was to provoke Jobto blaspheme the LORD (see
How Did The Devil Challenge JobTo Commit A Satan?) - a challenge that
righteous Job did not lose.
"19:1 Then Job answeredand said,
19:2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 19:3
These ten times have ye reproachedme: ye are not ashamedthat ye make
yourselves strange to me. 19:4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error
remaineth with myself. 19:5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves againstme,
and plead againstme my reproach: 19:6 Know now that God hath
overthrown me, and hath compassedme with his net. 19:7 Behold, I cry out of
wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. 19:8 He
hath fenced up my waythat I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my
paths. 19:9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my
head. 19:10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone:and mine
hope hath he removed like a tree. 19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against
me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. 19:12 His troops come
together, and raise up their way againstme, and encampround about my
tabernacle.
19:13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are
verily estrangedfrom me. 19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar
friends have forgottenme. 19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my
maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 19:16 I calledmy
servant, and he gave me no answer;I intreated him with my mouth. 19:17 My
breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine
own body. 19:18 Yea, young children despisedme; I arose, andthey spake
againstme. 19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved
are turned againstme. 19:20 My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh,
and I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth.

19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of
God hath touched me. 19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not
satisfiedwith my flesh? 19:23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that
they were printed in a book!19:24 That they were gravenwith an iron pen
and lead in the rock for ever! 19:25 For I know that my redeemerliveth, and
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 19:26 And though after
my skinworms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:19:27 Whom
I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my
reins be consumed within me. 19:28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him,
seeing the root of the matter is found in me? 19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword:
for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a
judgment." (Job 19:1-29 KJV)
FactFinder: How did Job know "that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth" and "though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God"?
See Job's ProphecyOf The Resurrection
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2014/20141029.htm
By the Skin of My Teeth!
September 11, 2016 #idioms #scripture
Share
William Shakespeare wrote some pretty mean plays and poetry in his day.
Along the way he inadvertently helped form the English language, coining

hundreds of words and expressions that have entered into common parlance.
Secondonly to Shakespeare inthis regard is the Bible, and especiallythe King
James Version. My love of language, my love of words, and my love of the
Bible beautifully intersectin these expressions, idioms like “By the skin of my
teeth.”
The Expression
We use the expression“by the skin of my teeth” as a synonym for “barely” or
“narrowly.” It is most commonly used to describe a closely-foughtbut narrow
victory or a close but ultimately harmless encounterwith danger. An article in
Slate suggeststhat if Donald Trump wins the presidency, he will do so only by
the skinof his teeth, which, they say, “is pretty much the only conceivable way
he could bestClinton.” An article in the sports pages ofthe Toronto Star says
that NASCAR driver James Hinchcliffe “wonlast Saturday night’s race at
Texas MotorSpeedwayby the skin of his teeth.”
The Origin
The phrase is drawn from the King James rendering of Job 19:20:“My bone
cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith the skin of my
teeth.” Almost all modern translations maintain the idiom, though “with” has
been changedto “by”: “My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have
escapedby the skin of my teeth” (ESV). This expressionis a case ofan ancient
Hebrew idiom that has been transported into English and become commonly
known and widely used. Yet no one knows exactly what the idiom means in its
source language. OldTestamentscholarJohn Hartley says, “The explanations
for the metaphor are multiple and unconvincing. Its meaning eludes us.” The
Oxford Dictionaryblog provides the most common and compelling
explanation when it points out that it probably “refers to the thin porcelain
exterior of the tooth (rather than the gums). In other words, Job escapedwith
his teeth, but just barely. Job is comparing the narrow margin of his escape
with the shallow ‘skin’ or porcelainof a tooth: the equivalent, in fact, of a
‘hair’s breadth’.”

The Application
The twentieth chapter of Job finds him replying to his “Job’s friends,”
(another common expression, as it happens). His friends have eachaccused
him of sinning, suggesting that his pastsins are the cause of his current
suffering. But Jobknows better. While he does not declare his utter innocence
before God, he also knows that his suffering is not God’s punishment for past
misdeeds. He maintains his innocence eventhough his suffering has been deep
and dark—so terrible that he has escapeddeathonly by the skin of his teeth.
Yet his faith is intact. Just moments later he says,
For I know that my Redeemerlives,
and at the lasthe will stand upon the earth.
And after my skinhas been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)
For Job, circumstances wouldnot define him. They would not be the cause of
ultimate confidence or despair. Rather, he relied on his knowledge ofthe
characterof God and on his existing relationship with God. He knew his God,
therefore he knew that God was working goodeventhrough the most
troubling of circumstances.And this is undoubtedly the foremostapplication
for most of us. Even if we suffer so deeply that we escape withour lives by
little more than the skin on our teeth, God remains God and he remains good.
Job’s words servedas the basis for SamuelMedley’s greathymn, “I Know
That My RedeemerLives.” My favorite rendition, which we sing often at
Grace FellowshipChurch, is this one from RedeemerChurch of Knoxville.

Meaning of Idiom ‘By the Skin of My (or one’s) Teeth’
By the skin of one’s teeth means barely, narrowly; by the thinnest of margins.
1,2
Examples Of Use
“I missed having a caraccidenttoday by the skin of my teeth.”
“I barely managedto graduate from college.I gotthrough by the skin of my
teeth.”
“The fugitive has been on the run for months and only yesterday he escaped
federal marshalls by the skin of his teeth.”
Origin
This idiom comes from the Bible passage Job19:20:
“My bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith the skin
of my teeth.”
Since teeth have no skin, this could be takenas an exaggeratedwayof saying
Job escapedwith nothing left but his own body. However, it could be that
something was lostin translating the passagefrom the original Hebrew.
https://www.idioms.online/by-the-skin-of-my-teeth/
By the Skin of My Faith
March 27, 2016 ~ pastormarkmeredith
Job says, “I have escapedonly by the skin of my teeth.” (Job 19:20) Since
teeth have no skin, what he means is he’s barely escapeddeath. I sometimes
think back with wonder at first few weeks andmonths I was Christian. I had
made a commitment to follow Christ “no matter what.” Sounds strong,
doesn’t it? But the reality was that I was very much at risk. I was weak and

vulnerable. I felt that a battle for my soul was raging, and I was supposedto
be more than an innocent bystander.
I have escapedonly by the skin of my teeth. (Job 19:20)
I still think following Jesus is the hardest thing I’ve ever done or ever will do.
I am currently training for my first half-marathon, but the degree ofdifficulty
of the marathon is not even close to the level of difficulty trying to follow
Jesus. I have a date on my calendarwhen I will run the marathon (June 18th),
and I have a training schedule to follow. I have one goal, to run the race one
mile at a time to the finish line.
Everything that canbe counted does not necessarilycount; everything that
counts cannotnecessarilybe counted.
However, following Jesus is waymore complicatedand arduous. Often, we
don’t know where we are in a race. As the idiom goes, “Everything that canbe
counted does not necessarilycount; and everything that counts cannot
necessarilybe counted.” The layers beneath the surface, the motivations and
attitudes of the heart all come into play. On top of that, temptation is truly a
strong force.
Barely hanging on to Jesus is infinitely better than not hanging on at all.
In the first six weeks ofmy Christian life, I facedintense temptation.
Somehow, and not perfectly, I escaped–bythe skin of my faith. Does faith
have skin? Maybe. It cancome in the form of other people who, to one degree
or another, exhibit faith. Sometimes, even faith that is skin-deepis what is
needed. Faith gives you hope that you too might be able to handle temptation
without giving in. It so happened that I got connectedwith other imperfect
Christ-followers. And eventually, and this is a bit of a mystery, I became a
person who inspired others to live by their faith–or at leastby the skin of their
faith. Barelyhanging on to Jesus is infinitely better than not hanging on at all.
Hang in there, even if it is by the skinof your faith.
Job hung in there by the skin of his faith. His temptation was to curse God,
and he comes oh so close–buthe never does. Just a few verses after he

mentions “by the skinof my teeth,” he says, “After my skin has been
destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God.” (Job19:26) Jobutters one of those
beautiful Easterlongings we find throughout the Old Testament. Job’s faith
was more than skin deep. He saw the possibility of a resurrectedbody that
would one day see God. That longing, or vision, is what keeps eachof us going.
So, in this Easterseason, I pray you get a view of the resurrectedChrist–and
the resurrectedyou. Hang in there, even if it is by the skin of your faith.
https://markmeredithblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/27/by-the-skin-of-my-faith/
songfacts ®
Artistfacts ®
Lyrics
I had wrists donning slits
Flowing constantly
My brokenbody in a wreck
Wrapped around a tree
A crosswalk hit and run
The finish line for me
People clutter in the gutter
Take a look and see

No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clinging on to life
By the skin o'my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clinging on to life
My blood flows through the streets
Deluge from the wounds
Empty jars of sleeping pills
On the dresserin my room
My wetbrain neighbor cranes
His neck in time to see
The white lights a train
Bearing down on me
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clinging on to life

No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clinging on to life
I won't feel the hurt
I'm not trash any longer
That that doesn't kill me
Only makes me stronger
I need a ride to the morgue
That's what 911 is for
So, tag my toe and don't forget
Ooh to close the drawer
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clinging on to life
No escaping pain
You belong to me

Clinging on to life
Writer/s: DAVE MUSTAINE
Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensedand provided by LyricFind
https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/megadeth/skin-o-my-teeth
In his Pulitzer prize-winning drama, playwright Thornton Wilder lauded the
ability of the human race to go on despite every hurdle placed in its path. The
title of the play, attributed to the King James Bible, Job 19:20, says it all: “My
bone cleavethto my skin and to my flesh, and I am escapedwith the skin of
my teeth.” THE SKIN OF OUR TEETHfirst openedon Broadwayin 1942
starring Tallulah Bankhead, Frederic March, and MontgomeryClift, winning
BankheadVariety and New York Drama Critics Awards for best actress. This
play, which broke nearly every establishedtheatricalconvention of the time,
proved confusing to its audiences but fascinating to critics.
Theatre / The Skin of Our Teeth
Theatre
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Create New

The Skin of Our Teethis a 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton
Wilder, a writer most famous for his other play, Our Town. It follows the
Antrobus family through thousands of years of existence, moving from an ice
age to the biblical Flood to the aftermath of a war much like World War II
but worse, mostlywithout leaving the fictional suburban town of Excelsior,
New Jersey. The main characters—George andMaggie Antrobus, their
children Henry and Gladys, and maid Sabina—are frequently utilized as
allegories forbiblical figures and archetypes, and are visited by historical
figures and mythical or historicalevents. Needless to say, the whole play is
swimming in an Anachronism Stew.
The original Broadwayproduction was directed by Elia Kazan and featured
Fredric Marchand Tallulah Bankheadas George and Maggie Antrobus and
MontgomeryClift (still six years awayfrom his movie debut) as Henry.
This play provides examples of:
Abusive Parents:George Antrobus has no qualms about hitting his son
Henry, especiallywhen he's in a temper.
Anachronism Stew:Almost too many examples in the first two acts to list, but
here's a goodone from Act I: Despite the fact that George Antrobus just
invented the alphabet recently, a poem by Longfellow is referenced. And then
there's the fact that while the world is in the midst of one of the ice ages—
Mammoths and all—the U.S. and all its cities exist in full, as do modern
houses. And yet Moses andHomer and some Muses come to the Antrobus
house seeking shelterfrom a glacier.
As the GoodBook Says...:This title is takenfrom Job 19:20, about Job
escaping only "by the skin of my teeth."
Cain and Abel: Henry and his unnamed elder brother, respectively. After
killing his brother, Cain had his named changedto Henry by their parents to
protect him from a bad reputation. Notthat it did that much good.

Daddy's Girl: BecauseHenry is forevertainted in his father's eyes by the
murder of his elder brother, most of Mr. Antrobus' affection is spent on his
daughter Gladys.
Delinquents: Henry, although this just scratches the surface of his character.
Foreshadowing:Sabina's offhand mention in the opening scene of Henry's
skill at throwing rocks at an older brother. Turns out Henry killed his older
brother.
Fortune Teller: One figures prominently in the secondact, frequently visited
by Sabina and also repeatedlytrying to warn everyone that the greatflood is
coming.
Loads and Loads of Characters:Mostof them are bit parts, but there's still a
lot of them.
Mama Bear:Mrs. Antrobus, who'd "see us all laid out dead" if it would spare
her children any discomfort.
Meaningful Name: The main family's name sounds a lot like "anthro" (Latin
for "human"). Fitting for a group that symbolically represents the family of
man.
No Ending: The fight betweenMr. Antrobus and Henry is the climax of the
third act, but Miss Somerset(Sabina)interrupts the fight because of
dangerous incidents in the past, and we never find out the outcome of the
confrontation.
No Fourth Wall: Sabina, or rather Miss Somerset, the actress playing Sabina,
is the main offender here, frequently complaining about and apologizing for
the ridiculousness of the play and even refusing to play the scene in the second
act where she attempts to seduce George Antrobus awayfrom his wife. When
she describes her objectionto the scene becauseshe knew a womanwhose
husband was seducedin a similar manner, a plant in the audience actually
starts crying and runs out. And then of course, there's the stage managerwho
keeps appearing, and... well, there's really too much to list here.

In some ways, it's also a subversion; there is, after all, still a fourth wall of a
sort, since all of the "breaks"are actually part of the play and all of the
supposedly "real" people are actually anotherlayer of characters.(See Show
Within a Show)
Offing the Offspring: A huge part of Act III, when George and Henry have
come home from war as leaders ofopposing armies.
Our Acts Are Different: Like Our Town, the play is in three acts of roughly
the same length, with Intermission takenbetweeneach.
ParentalFavoritism: See Daddy's Girl above.
Show Within a Show:Directly connectedto No Fourth Wall, the show is
framed as actors (who therefore are themselves fictional characters)in a
performance of The Skin of Our Teeth. It comes to the fore in the beginning
of Act III, where severalof the actors have come down with food poisoning
and are replacedin a symbolic time-filling scene by members of the backstage
crew.
That's All, Folks!
Title Drop: Sabina in the first act. It's part of a cue line that the actress
playing Mrs. Antrobus is supposedto enter on, but doesn't, bringing about the
first major breaking of the Fourth Wall by the character.
World of No Grandparents: As much notice as is given to family relations, the
only mention of a grandparent is a brief reference by Mr. Antrobus to his
parents.
Escapedby the skin of my teeth
By Glen on April 17th, 2011
Click for source

Here’s one of the more famous phrases in the bible. We’ve probably all used
it. And we’ve probably used it in its biblical sense – i.e. to describe an
extremely narrow escape. Butif we were askedto explain it, we’d struggle.
Why “skinof my teeth”? Why not “hair of my kidneys”? Or “lips of my
elbow”? Thatwould seemto make as much sense.
But it seems like Job is talking about an “escape” so unlikely as to be
impossible. The fact that my teeth don’t have skin is precisely the point. I
shouldn’t have escapedany more than my teeth should have skin.
What does Job need escape from? Well, let’s start with his circumstances.
They are pretty dire:
I calledmy servant, and he gave me no answer;I intreated him with my
mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s
sake ofmine own body. Yea, young children despisedme; I arose, and they
spake againstme. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I
loved are turned againstme. My bone cleavethto my skinand to my flesh,
and I am escapedwith the skin of my teeth. (Job 19:16-20)
Everyone around Job seems to be againsthim. But if that weren’t bad
enough, verse 9-11 speak ofGod being againsthim:
He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He
hath destroyedme on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he
removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath againstme, and he
counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. (Job19:9-11)
We’ve been thinking of Job as the story of “man” and these verses are
particularly apt. Stripped of his glory and crown, man is now an enemy of
God.
There is nothing in man’s circumstances and nothing in his natural state
before God that could possibly give him hope. Yet he does have a hope.
Tomorrow we will think about the one hope for Job (the one hope for man) –
“I know that my Redeemerliveth” (Job 19:25).

But the context for that hope is utter hopelessnessin his own situation. The
salvationof man is a completelyunnatural escape – a “skin of my teeth” kind
of escape. Ithas nothing to do with me and my circumstances and everything
to do with my Redeemer.
John Calvin speaks ofit quite poignantly:
“Everything by which we are surrounded conflicts with the promise of God.
He promises us immortality, but we are encompassedwith mortality and
corruption. He pronounces that we are righteous in His sight, but we are
engulfed in sin. He declares His favour and goodwilltowards us, but we are
threatened by the tokens of his wrath. What can we do? It is His will that we
should shut our eyes to what we are and have, in order that nothing may
impede or even check our faith in Him.”
This is a gospelfor sufferers. Those who suffer know they have nothing. You
can’t tell a Job“worse things happen at sea” – in Job’s case, that’s just not
true. It’s as bad as it gets. Those who suffer know that there’s nothing in
their immediate circumstances thatwould give them hope.
Yet here is the gospel:our salvationlies entirely above our circumstances and
above ourselves. It lies in Christ our Redeemer. Fornow “we shut our eyes to
what we are and have” – nothing around us will give us comfort. But there is
One above us who can be trusted – He provides our escape:
our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)
https://kingsenglish.info/2011/04/17/escaped-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth/
By the skin of one’s teeth
Q From Cindy Bean:I was born and raisedin Maine and still live there. Quite
often I hear the expressionby the skin of my teeth. We usually say it when we
have done something just in the nick or time or avoided something by a very

narrow margin. It doesn’t make much sense and is rather on the silly side.
Does this have any specialorigin?
A It does indeed: it’s Biblical. It appeared first in the Geneva Bible of 1560
and was copiedin the King James Bible of 1611:
Yea, young children despisedme; I arose, andthey spake againstme. All my
inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned againstme.
of my teeth.
Job, Chapter 19, verses 18–20,part of the lamentations of Job to God about
his dreadful situation.
The English phrase was a direct translation of the original Hebrew, so it is
very ancient indeed.
Since teeth don’t have skin, the phrase is hard to make sense of; Bible
translators and commentators have struggled with it down the centuries. The
Douay-Rheims Bible has instead “My bone hath cleavedto my skin, and
nothing but lips are left about my teeth.” Other writers have suggestedthat
the reference is to the gums. Modern versions often imply that Job meant the
same by it as we do today by adopting our modern standard form with by in
place of with. The World English Bible, for example, has “I have escapedby
the skinof my teeth”.
Job’s misfortunes at the hands of God and Satan were so greatthat he could
hardly have believed he had had much of an escape atall. Was he saying that
the only part of his body that hadn’t suffered the boils and sores inflicted by
Satanwas the skin of his lips or gums? Was he instead saying allusively that
his bodily afflictions were so greatthat he had had a narrow escapefrom
death? One modern writer has concluded:
The explanations for the last metaphor are multiple and unconvincing. Its
meaning eludes us.
The Book ofJob, by John Hartley, 1988.

With such scholarlyincomprehension, we can hardly blame English speakers
for possibly having misunderstood it. As usual with idioms, we just have to
acceptthat people mean by it what they mean by it.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-byt1.htm
SavedBy The Skin Of Your Teeth?
"I didn't know Steve was a Christian." "Suzan rededicatedher heart to the
Lord? She sure hasn't been living like it." "Whenthis life is over, some people
are going to realize that they were saved by the skin of their teeth."
These are things I've heard, both in the past and present. Apparently, you can
tell who is savedand who is not. And apparently some people are more saved
than others based upon how you see them live.
Now, true, in theory you should be able to tell if a person is savedor not.
However, what about the truly moral person who is not saved? I've seenmany
an unsaved person live a moral life, much better than most Christians. Should
we consider them to be saved basedupon what they do? That's a rather
problematic view. And the implication seems to be that the "moralChristian"
who "has a handle" on his life is more savedand more securelyso than the
Christian who visibly struggles daily with the old Adam. Once again, if we
base this upon what is visible, wouldn't the very opposite be true? The "moral
Christian" would indeed be less savedbecause he has less to be saved from.
After all, he needs Christ to work less in his life because he's gota handle on
his sin. The Christian who daily struggles with the old Adam would thereby

be saved more because he must rely on Christ more to work in his life because
he does not have a handle on his sin. Once again, this problematic.
The further implication is that the Christian who visibly struggles with the old
Adam is savedby the skin of his teeth and should considerjust how lucky he
is that God has found him worthy of being able to "make it" into heaven. If he
were more savedhe would struggle less, sin visibly less and be more like those
wonderful "moralChristians" who visibly have it all figured out. To make
matters worse, those (hopefully) "well-intentioned" "moral Christians" never
ceaseto remind the struggling Christian (or even more often behind their
backs)that they need to be more like them. Bigger, faster, stronger... heaping
on more and more Law. (misuse of the third use anyone?) The problem there
is that the Law does not give the power for a person to change. Only the
Gospeldoes.
So, ignoring what is visible, are some Christians more savedthan others? Are
some of us savedmerely by the skinof our teeth?
The Law
Romans 3:23: We are all sinners. ("all" means "all" and that's all that "all"
will ever mean)
Psalm51:5: We were sinners before we were born.
Romans 6:23a: What we have all earned, our wage, is death. Both physically
and spiritually. If you've gotno sin in your life you wouldn't die.
Romans 3:10-18:This is you. This is me.
The Gospel
Romans 10:17: Godgives us faith

Ephesians 2:8-9: God saves us by His grace through the faith He has given us
Romans 6:23b: Salvationis God's gift to us.
Two answerboth of our questions in a word.... "No." Why do we have these
questions? I think it's a confusion of Justificationand Sanctification.
Justification:God's actof saving us. Sanctification:God's act of changing us.
(Philippians 2:13) Justification is not visible, however, many times
Sanctificationis, which is why I believe these questions stem from that. It
should be noted, however, that evenSanctificationis God's work in us as well.
We are sinful, deserving of hell, and it is God who saves us. Salvation isn't
graded. It's pass or fail. You are either saved, or you are not. That is the only
distinction. There is only kind of Christian: Simul Justus Et Peccator. At once
justified and sinner. (Romans 7, and yes, Paul wrote that as a Christian)
Though we are saved, we unfortunately still sin. Thanks be to God that He
gives us Faith, that He extends Grace, that He saves. We aren't savedby the
skin of our teeth. We're are savedby the Grace ofthe risen Savior.
JesuJuva,
Soli Deo Gloria
Postedby Leif.Halvorsonat 11:51 AM
Can you repent at the moment of death and still have the same salvationas
someone who's beena Christian for many years?

That’s a tricky question, but I think it’s a fascinating one and certainly one
that many people are concernedabout. We talk about foxhole faith, when
people cry out in desperate moments of crisis or postpone to their deathbed
the moment of committing their lives to Christ. Some people say that it
doesn’t make sense for somebodywho has been a Christian all their life to be
in the same state as somebody who did as they pleasedall their life and waited
until the lastsecondto get their accounts square with God.
There’s a parable in the New Testamentin which Jesus speaksaboutthose
who agree to work for a certain wage, andthen at the last minute some other
people are hired and only work for a few minutes but they getthe same pay.
The first group is really bent out of shape, and they say, “What’s going on
here? There’s no justice in this!” Does the secondgroup receive the same
salvation? Yes and no. They are brought into a state of salvation;that is, they
escape the punishment of hell and enter into the kingdom if indeed that last-
breath repentance is genuine. The requirement for entrance into the kingdom
of God is to repent and believe in Christ.
The thief on the cross did it in the last minutes of his life, and Jesus assured
him that he would be with him in paradise. There we have Exhibit A in the
New Testamentof somebodywho actually did that and who was promised by
our Lord himself that he would participate in Jesus’kingdom. Certainly it’s
possible for a personat the last moment of their life to repent sufficiently,
believe, and be justified and enter into all of the benefits of membership of the
kingdom of heaven.
However, Paul speaks ofthose who make it into the kingdom by the skin of
their teeth. I think a “deathbed” believer would be in that category. We tend
to think that all that matters is getting there because there is an unbridgeable
chasm betweengetting into heaven or missing it altogether. Yet Jesus tells us
to work and to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven because he promises
emphatically that there will be rewards dispensed to his people according to
their obedience and their works. You don’t getinto heaven by your works, but
your reward in heaven will be according to those works, according to the New
Testament. What that says to me is that although people can make it by the
skin of their teeth by repenting in their last dying breath, nevertheless, their

degree of felicity will not be nearly as greatas that of those who have been
serving Christ faithfully for many, many years.
Takenfrom Now, That's a GoodQuestion! Copyright © 1996 by R.C. Sproul.
Used by permission of Tyndale.
Re:Who are the ones that will get in heaven by the skin of their teeth?
Our passagein question reads:
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him
glorify Godon this behalf. Forthe time is come that judgment must begin at
the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospelof God? And if the righteous scarcelybe saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well
doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (1 Peter4:16-19)
We have the beginnings of persecutions againstChristians in view along with
an encouragementfor believers coupled with a warning for the rebellious.
Depending on the actualtiming of the writings, we had the Imperial Cult,
non-believing Jewishpersecutions throughthe birkat ha minim and other
measures and a generalhatred of believers. These persecutions maybe viewed
as discipline from the Lord. Judgment begins at God's house. (See Ezekiel9:5,
6) If the believers are subjectto all the terrible goings on at the hands of
persecutors, whatwill be the finality of those that obey not the Gospel? The
question is not drawing attention to the difficulty for God to save a sinner, but
to cause a sinner and saint to realize by contrastwhat's going to happen to the
wicked. Where will the sinner and ungodly appear? We have this awesome

answerin the Revelation20:11, And I saw a greatwhite throne, and him that
saton it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was
found no place for them.
_________________
Robert Wurtz II
2012/6/1723:11
Profile
twayneb
Member
Joined: 2009/4/5
Posts:1976
Joplin, Missouri
Re:Who are the ones that will get in heaven by the skin of their teeth?
1Co 3:8-15
(8) Now he that planteth and he that waterethare one: and every man shall
receive his own reward according to his own labour.

(9) For we are labourers togetherwith God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are
God's building.
(10) According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise
masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But
let every man take heedhow he buildeth thereupon.
(11) Forother foundation canno man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ.
(12) Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble;
(13) Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealedby fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of
what sort it is.
(14) If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a
reward.
(15) If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss:but he himself
shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Though not the scripture you were referring to, this passageapplies to the
topic very well I think. There are those who are born again, but whose lives
are, to a large degree, selfgovernedand whose works are works ofthe flesh.
These men and women do a lot of goodthings o0f their own devising for God,
but may not do God's things. I hope to have many crowns to lay at His feet,
but I must be aware that crowns of my own making will be as wood, hay, and
stubble, even though they may bear some goodfruit for the kingdom of God.
Howeverthe works done out of obedience to His prompting and done in His
powerand anointing will be gold, silver, and precious stones.
_________________

Travis
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=45322&
forum=36
What did Satanmean, when he replied to God, “Skin for Skin”?
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In the Book ofJob, after Jobhas went through his first testfrom Satan there
is another gathering in Heaven and, once again, Satanis there (Job2:1-3).
The result of this gathering is that Job will have to endure another test. This is
explained in Job2:4-6. In verse 4, Satan replies to God with the following
statement.
Job 2:4 (NIV):
"Skinfor skin!" Satan replied." A man will give all he has for his ownlife.
But stretchout your hand and strike his flesh and bones,
and he will surely curse you to your face."

What is the meaning of "skin for skin"? It would appear that Satanhas
"sealedthe deal" by skin in exchange for skin.
In Job 19:20 the word skin is recordedtwice, although in a different context:
I am nothing but skin and bones;
I have escapedby only the skin of my teeth.
Interestingly, the above verse implies that Jobhas escaped"death" only by
the skinof his teeth. This is after Satanwas told by God.
Job 2:6:
The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must
spare his life."
Nine verses with reference to "skin" are recordedin the Book of Job(scroll
down to view).
word-study job figure-of-speech
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ThaddeusB
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Bagpipes
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Since Satan, the accuser, does notwant to believe in Job's blamelessness, he
seeks to depreciate orimpugn Job's characterby saying in effect,

"Job's so-calledblamelessness is attributable to a bargain he made with you,
God. It's an even exchange:He'll be blameless if you give him the lifestyle to
which he's become accustomed."
In other words, Satanis suggesting Job's enviable lifestyle is simply a case of
quid pro quo (i.e., something for something else;an even trade; "You scratch
my back, and I'll scratchyours";that type of thing). Put differently, God
prospers Job, and in turn Jobpays God back by maintaining a blameless
lifestyle. An analogymight be the soldier in a foxhole who promises to serve
God the rest of his life if God will spare his life. Of course, once Godspares
the soldier's life, the soldier immediately forgets his promise to God.
I do not know if the trading of skins was common in Job's day, as it was in the
days of the Old Westin America, when a fur trader might trade, say, a
bearskinfor six beaver pelts, in an "even-Steven" barter. (I assume, perhaps
wrongly, that a bear skinand six beaverpelts were of equal worth.)
If that is not the case, then the word skin could be the figure of speechcalleda
synecdoche, whichindicates a part-for-whole relationship. "Skin," therefore,
would stand for a person's entire life. Satan, then, is implying that--like the
soldier, above--Jobwill gladly give up his charmed lifestyle ("skin"), if God
will gethim out of a jam and save his "skin" (i.e., his physical life), even if that
life includes pain and suffering, which of course it did!
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answeredMar5 '15 at 16:40
rhetorician
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You refer to an "even-Steven" barter, in relation to "skinfor skin." In Job's
day, the scripture in Job:16-15 informs us that Job wore sackcloth,whichis
manufactured from "goatskin." This is a good indication that people did
trade skins in Job's day, in the same way as thy did in the Old West.Wheni
researchedmy question,i found that people in the Old Westdealt in buckskin
(deer), and as time went by,the dollar was used in exchange for buckskin.This
is where the slang word "buck," which is now used for dollar,has its root.One
might say "buck for buck," like Satansaid "skinfor skin." – Bagpipes Mar6
'15 at 9:27
Job: 30:28 informs us that Job goes about"blackened,"butnot by the sun,and
in 30:30 the scripture says, "my skin grows black and peels,and my body
burns with fever.Here skin takes on a different meaning, as in "human skin,"
and not animal skin.Any thoughts on this? – Bagpipes Mar6 '15 at 9:48
@Bagpipes:Offhand, I'd say that the skin condition with which Job was
afflicted may have caused his skin to turn black. After all, Satan "smote Job
with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crownof his head" (2:7).
Evidently, Job gotsome relief by scraping the boils with a fragment of broken
pottery (2:8). Not a pretty sight, by any means! – rhetorician Apr 7 '15 at 1:08
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1
The first testto which Job is submitted takes everything from Job that is his
property. This is the initial challenge posedby Satan: that Job only loves God
because ofthe intelligence and wealth that God has provided Job. After God
allows Satanto take Job's property, Job humbly accepts this in stating that
God both gives and takes away.
Satanthen returns to God and states that any man would give their property
if only to save their own life. Put in another way, if you are held up at
gunpoint and told "your money or your life" you will gladly give up your
money, otherwise you lose both. Satan's accusation, being the accuser, is that
Job was presentedwith a similar problem: that while God took his money,
Job submitted only to spare his life or flesh. "Skinfor skin" is Satan's way of
saying that if Job were held to the prospectof losing his life then he would
surely curse God. This is the secondtestto which God permits Satanto
submit Jobto, which is why God says to Satanthat he may do anything to Job
BUT take his life. The idea is that Satan may inflict disease onJob's skin to
the point that the disease makes Jobfeelas though he has lostmore than his
property but the very flesh that carries his soul is doomed. The testposed by
Satanis: "if Job gives up his money in your name, would he actually be
willing to give up his life without condemning you."
The Satanic function in scripture is always aimed at undermining such faith,
and Job's story does reappearin that of Jesus in which Jesus does give up his
life willfully to the point of loving the other who crucifies him and praising his
Father (God) in the process (Why have you forsakenme/It has been
accomplished). While Job does not lose his life, the wagerof Satanis that men
only worship God so long as they receive something in return. However, both
Job and Christ have no reservations about what happens to them and prove
that it is possible to worship the Name of God to the very end and beyond.
This is the significance of"Skinfor Skin."

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/16922/what-did-satan-
mean-when-he-replied-to-god-skin-for-skin
Expression:By The Skin Of Your Teeth
Learn Australian English in this Expressionepisode of Aussie Englishwhere I
teachyou the expressionBY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
Expression:By The Skin Of Your Teeth
G’day guys.
How’s it going?
Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.
Thank you once again for joining me guys.
I really appreciate all of you, and if it’s your first time sit back, relax, enjoy
the Aussie English Podcast, andlet’s practice your Australian English as well
as English in general.
So, welcome to everyone who’s listening for the first time.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Anyway, let’s getstarted guys.
In this episode we’re going to be going over the phrase BY THE SKIN OF
YOUR TEETH.
BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
And this is often used when you do something BY THE SKIN OF YOUR
TEETH.

So, you achieve something, you do something BY THE SKIN OF YOUR
TEETH.
So, as usual, we’ll go through and define the different words in the expression
BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
So, BY is a preposition that identifies the thing or the agent that has
performed an action, or that is performing an action.
And it can also be used to indicate the means of achieving something.
So, that’s a little bit complicated. I’m sure a lot of you know how to use BY or
that it’s a preposition.
So, for instance, “He got help BY asking someone forhelp.”, “She succeeded
BY practicing every day.”, “I got here BY car.”, etc.
BY, the word BY.
The word SKIN.
SKIN is a noun, and it’s the layer of tissue forming that naturally covering on
a person or an animal, some kind of organism.
And it’s often saidthat it’s the largestorganin your body.
I remember being a kid and people would always be like, you know, in biology
class orwhatever the teacherwould say, “What’s the largestorganin your
body?” and we’d all sit there and think and be like, “Is it our brain or is it our
lungs? Is it our heart?”, and we would never think, “Oh, it’s actually the
SKIN on the outside of our body”.
Anyway, the SKIN, the SKIN is the largestorganin the body, and it’s that
thin layer on the outside.
Your SKIN.
And it can also be used to talk about an outer layer or covering or something.
So, for example, the SKIN of an apple is that outer covering on it.

Or you could say, if you were wearing a wetsuitthat it was acting as like a
secondskin.
It’s a layer on the outside.
It’s covering.
If you’re wearing a wetsuitwhen you go surfing or go for a scuba dive or
something.
The word TEETH.
The word TEETHis another noun, and this is the plural of A TOOTH.
So, a TOOTHand TEETH, or a TOOTHis a set of hard boney enamel-coated
structures in your mouth.
So, that was a pretty complicatedsentence, but it’s those hard boney things in
your mouth that you use for biting and chewing.
We all know what a TOOTH is and what TEETHare.
So, when you do something BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH, when you do
something BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH, this is a bit of a peculiar
expressionI know, because your teeth don’t have skin, right?
Like, there’s no… there’s no skin on my teeth.
There’s no skin.
But it means to narrowly succeedatsomething, to barely succeedat
something, to only just succeedatsomething.
So, to nearly fail at something, to only just manage to do it, only just.
So, it’s usually used in regardto a narrow escape from a disasteror something
incredibly severe.
So, I tried to come up with a goodway of thinking about this expression, BY
THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
To do something BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.

And I want you guys to imagine that you are hanging over the edge of a cliff,
so, over the edge of a mountain, over a cliff, a sharp drop overthe edge of a
mountain, by a rope.
So, you’ve gota rope in your mouth and your teeth are holding onto that rope.
Your hands are tied.
So, for whateverreasonyour hands are tied.
You can’t hold onto the rope with your hands.
You have to do it with your teeth.
And your friends are pulling the rope up to try and save you, but as you’re
getting pulled up the ropes starting to slip out of your mouth.
So, it’s slipping through your teeth.
Anyway, you manage to hold on, and you could say that you were literally
holding on BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
So, if the rope was at that point where it had only just, only just stayedinside
of your mouth, it’d almost slipped out of your teeth, then it was just hanging
on BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
Literally, by the very edge of your teeth.
Using “Skin” here as a metaphor for it just being right near the very very
edge of your teeth.
So, only just managing to succeedor avoid failing at something.
So, you managedto succeedatholding onto the rope BY THE SKIN OF
YOUR TEETH.
I lookedinto where this expressionoriginates from, and this’s actually quite
interesting guys.
This expressionoriginates from the Geneva Bible.
I hope I’m saying that right.

The Geneva Bible from the year 1560 in the passageJob19:20, and it was
literally translatedfrom Hebrew, and the passage was, “I’ve escapedwith the
skin of my teeth.”
So, apparently that’s where this originates from.
Anyway, let’s getinto some examples of how this would be used in modern
day English and how I would use this.
Example number 1, imagine that you have an incredibly difficult exam that
you have to pass.
So, you’ve had this subject at uni, say it’s maths or physics or something
incredibly difficult that you just can’t do very easily. It’s really hard.
So, you’ve gotthis exam.
You need a 50% in the exam to be able to pass it, to pass the subject not just
the exam.
And if you gota 51% you could say that you passedthe exam BY THE SKIN
OF YOUR TEETH.
So, you literally just got in.
It was so close.
You were so close to failing, but you just managedto pass the exam by 1%.
You passedthe exam BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
You passedit, you did it, you achievedit, but only just.
A secondexample could be that you have a flight to catch, but you’re running
late for the airport.
You’ve takenan Uber.
He took the wrong directions.
He’s gottenyou a bit late.

You didn’t leave enough time for you to getthere early before your flight, and
you just arrived with, say, 15 minutes until your plane’s about to pull away
from the terminal and take off.
And so, you’ve just arrived, you’ve run through, you’ve put your luggage in,
you’ve managedto only just getto the plane, to board the plane, to get into
your seat, and literally as you got on you were the last person, you could say
that you have managedto catchyour plane BY THE SKIN OF YOUR
TEETH.
So, you only just managed to get there.
It was about to pull awayfrom the terminal and take off, but you got there
just in time.
You gotthere.
You caught it BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
A third example could be that you are stuck in a building that’s on fire.
So, this building’s burning down.
It’s burning.
You climb out onto a window ledge, because youcouldn’t get down the stairs
or you couldn’t get the lift down, you know, you were on the top floor.
So, you climb out onto a window to avoid the flames.
You’re screaming for help.
The firemen are down below.
You can see them.
They’ve brought a truck up, and they’re extending the ladder up to save you.
So, they’re bring that ladder up to try and take you off the window ledge.
They manage to just get there in time.

You getonto the ladder, and literally as you step onto the ladder, into safety,
into the fireman’s arms, the building collapses andburns up.
You could say there that you just managed to survive BY THE SKIN OF
YOUR TEETH.
You escapedthe burning building BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
You were savedBY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH.
So, hopefully by now guys you get the idea of what the phrase BY THE SKIN
OF YOUR TEETHis.
It’s when you achieve something but only just.
So, when you barely succeedat something, you only just succeed, you almost
failed, but you managed to succeedin the end.
As usual guys, we’ll go through a listen and repeatexercise here at the end so
that you guys canpractice your pronunciation a little bit.
And, I want you to hold that example of escaping that burning building in
your mind as we go through this listen and repeatexercise, guys.
Just so that you connectit with this phrase, “To escapeBY THE SKIN OF
YOUR TEETH.”
So, imagine that you’re in that building, but you just manage to getout alive,
to get out unscathed, and to survive.
So, listen and repeat after me guys.
Listen and repeat:
I escapedby the skin of my teeth.
You escapedby the skin of your teeth.
He escapedby the skin of his teeth.
She escapedby the skin of her teeth.

We escapedby the skinof our teeth.
They escapedby the skin of their teeth.
So, I’m going to run through this exercise one more time guys, but at a more
natural speed, at a more natural pace of how I would say this.
And just listen out for some pronunciation changes that may occurhere.
So, let’s go.
Listen and repeat:
I escapedby the skin of my teeth.
You escapedby the skin of your teeth.
He escapedby the skin of his teeth.
She escapedby the skin of her teeth.
We escapedby the skinof our teeth.
They escapedby the skin of their teeth.
So, a little pronunciation note there guys, if you didn’t catchit, it’s specifically
the word “Of” that I want you to concentrate (on)in there.
So, when “Of” is directly followedby “My”, “You”, “Their”, it’s often turned
into just “ah”, because allof those words start with a consonant.
So, you’re going to hear “Skin’ahmy teeth”, “Skin’ahyour teeth”, “Skin’ah
their teeth.” But then in the case ofwords like “His”, “Hers”, “Our” or “Its”,
“Of” is often still said as “Of”.
There’s still a kind of consonantsound at the end there.
It’s not “Ah” it’s “Of”.
And this is because it then bounces off the next vowel.
So, you’re going to here “Ov’is teeth”, “Ov’erteeth”, “Ov’our teeth”, “Ov’its
teeth”.

Anyway, guys, that’s just one more thing to sortof take note of or to think
about, to have rolling around in your head if you want to work on your
pronunciation and saythings as I do.
A few mentions at the end here guys, if you haven’t already make sure that
you jump over to the Facebookpage and come and say, “G’day”.
Give me a thumbs up if you like what I’m doing at Aussie English, and
comment on things, getinvolved in the community.
I’m really trying to build things over there and just have people involved and
working on their Englishas much as possible.
And I’m always there to try and help you guys out if you have any kind of
questions or any kind of struggles in English.
You’re always welcome to send me a message orjust comment on things with
any kind of question.
Also, if you haven’t already make sure you go to the website
www.TheAussieEnglishPodcast.comand sign up for the email list that I’ve got
there.
When you sign up, guys, you get a free ebook and audio course.
So, it’s about an hour or so long.
I’ve put a lot of effort into this, guys, to try and teachyou some basic English
contractions.
So, I go over words like “Gonna”, “Hafta”, “Hasda”,“Needa”, “Needsta”,
“Dunno”, “Doncha”, andI try and teachyou guys how to pronounce those
contractions like a native.
So, that’s all 100%free.
You just have to sign up to the email list.
One last mention here guys is that I have releasedthe Aussie English
Supporter Pack.

I’m working on this a lot at the moment, guys, to try and help those who want
to take their English to the next level.
So, there’s premium transcripts.
You getPDFs, MP3 downloads for eachepisode with bonus exercises
including vocabulary lists and tables to fill out.
You getaudio and written substitution exercises.
So, I often go over phrasal verbs, over different expressions, conjunctions,
prepositions that are used in collocationsin there.
So, all the more complicatedparts of the vocab I try and include in some of
these exercises.
I also have listening comprehensionexercisesfor you guys, and then just basic
language learning tips and tricks that I use, and what I suggestto do if you
want to keeplearning the vocabthat you’ve learned in these episodes.
And one lastthing, for the Aussie English Supporter Pack we also have a
private FacebookMembers Group.
And this is really growing at the moment.
It’s going quite well.
I want to thank Thibault and Estefania and Vanessa, Juliana, allof the
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taking part every day in conversations,and just working to help eachother
improve their English.
So, if you guys sign up for the Aussie English Supporter Pack, it’s a premium
pack, it helps me do more in Aussie English, and it’ll definitely help you get
your English to the next level if that’s your goal.
Anyway, guys, head over to the website.
Check out the FREE example PDFs and example episodes that I’ve got up
there for you, and if you like it then think about signing up.

Anyway, guys, I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and I’ll see you in the next
one.
Peace out!
https://aussieenglish.com.au/expression-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth/
There’s a lot riding on those pearly whites of yours.
Twenty-nine percent of Americans say the first thing they notice about
someone is their teeth. And people perceive those with perfectsmiles to be
smarter, happier, more trustworthy, more successfuland more romantically
desirable.
All that might explain why the globaldental industry is set to be worth $37
billion by 2021.
But the importance of having healthy teeth is nothing new. There are teeth
quotes, proverbs, idioms and phrases dating right back to biblical times. Read
on to find out some of our favorites.
“By the skin of your teeth”
You’ve probably all heard this teeth idiom. But what many of you might not
know is that this saying has a biblical origin.
In the Bible, it was first used to describe escaping from a situation with
nothing but your life. Nowadays,it means a close call, as in something
achievedor avoided by a tiny margin. For example, you might saythat you
caught the train ‘by the skin of your teeth’ when the doors closedbehind you
just as you entered the carriage.

Whether the ‘skin’ of your teeth refers to their enamel coating or the thin
layer of gum covering the tops of your teeth, you’ll understand how thin this
margin canbe.
“An aching tooth is better out than in. To lose a rotting member is a gain” –
Richard Baxter
This teeth quote from 17th-century poet Richard Baxterhas both a literal and
a metaphoricalmeaning.
As anyone who’s experiencedthe pain of toothache will know, having that
tooth removed can bring immeasurable relief. But, the “rotting member”
could also be seenas a bad team member who’s dragging the others down in
some way. In this sense, getting rid of that personis a gainfor the overall
successofthe group.
Related: 11 Wise RelaxationQuotes to Put You at Ease
“To fight tooth and nail”
This is one of those common teeth sayings that you’ve no doubt heard, but
have never really stopped to think what it means.
Fighting with your teeth and fingernails means resorting to your lastdefenses
after you’ve lostall your other weapons and fighting abilities.
The image of someone scratching and biting their enemy to stay alive is
certainly powerful. As such, ‘fighting tooth and nail’ has come to mean a
desperate struggle for something.
“Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond” – Miguelde
Cervantes
In 1605 when Cervantes wrote ‘Don Quixote’, once you lost a tooth, that was
that, explaining why eachtooth was consideredso valuable back then.
Nowadays we have these services, including removable dentures and dental
implants to replace missing teeth. Although, we’re sure that our dentists
would appreciate us treating our teeth more like precious diamonds.

BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH: JOB'S NARROW ESCAPE FROM SUFFERING

BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH: JOB'S NARROW ESCAPE FROM SUFFERING

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