I have searched both the archive and the SDMB threads. I can find nothing.
Over at the other board I frequent, Dave Wilton’s, we have a thread about Skin of one’s teeth and its origin.
Evidently, Job 19:20 says something to the effect of “I have excaped with the skin of my teeth.” I’m just posting an approximate translation at this point.
Can Zev or any other scholars offer any help on the exact translation, and/or thinking about the subject. Thanks.
And, of course, I’m sure it wasn’t excaped:o :o
In the translation I use (New American Bible), Job 19:20 says:
The associated note to that verse says:
That’s all I have on that verse at the moment - I’d like to see what different translations have as well.
Well, I pulled out my Artscroll Tanakh. The translation they have is “My bones cling to the skin of my flesh; I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.”
Rashi, the 11th century Bible and Talmud commentator makes the note that Job’s gums were the only places on his body that were not inflamed.
Zev Steinhardt
The source of the phrase “by the skin of one’s teeth” is indeed the Book of Job, although the precise phrase Job used was “My bone cleaveth to my skin, and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth” (not “by”). Just what the “skin” of one’s teeth might be is a bit unclear, but it probably refers to the thin porcelain exterior of the tooth, not the gums. Job evidently kept his teeth, but just barely. It is also possible that he was saying that the margin of his escape was as narrow as the “skin” of a tooth is shallow – the equivalent of a “hair’s breadth.” In any case, Job clearly meant that he’d had a very hard time of it, and the phrase has been used ever since to mean a very narrow or arduous escape.