Job 19:20

“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, etc.] Or, “as to my flesh” f743, as Mr. Broughton and others render the words; as his bones used to stick to his flesh, and were covered with it, now his flesh being consumed and wasted away with his disease, they stuck to his skin, and were seen through it; he was reduced to skin and bone, and was a mere skeleton, what with the force of his bodily disorder, and the grief of his mind through the treatment he met with from God and men, (see <250408> Lamentations 4:8); and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth; meaning not, as some understand it, his lips, which covered his teeth; for those cannot be properly called the skin of them; rather the…”

“Extreme meagerness. The bone seemed to stick in the skin, being seen through it, owing to the flesh drying up and falling away from the bone. The Margin, "as to my flesh," makes this sense clearer. The English Version, however, expresses the same: "And to my flesh," namely, which has fallen away from the bone, instead of firmly covering it. skin of my teeth--proverbial. I have escaped with bare life; I am whole only with the skin of my teeth; that is, my gums alone are whole, the rest of the skin of my body is broken with sores (Job 7:5; Psa 102:5). Satan left Job his speech, in hope that he might therewith curse God.”

“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh - The meaning of this probably is, “my skin and flesh are dried up so that the bone seems adhere to the skin, and so tht the form of the bone becomes visible.” It is designed to denote a state of great emaciation, and describes an effect which we often see. And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth - A very difficult expression, and which has greatly perplexed commentators, and on whose meaning they are by no means agreed. Dr. Good renders it, “and in the skin of my teeth am I dissolved;” but what that means is as difficult of explanation as the original. Noyes, “and I have scarcely escaped with the skin of my teeth.” Herde, (as translated by…”

“Skin - Immediately, the fat and flesh next to the skin being consumed. As - As closely as it doth to these remainders of flesh which are left in my inward parts. Job 19:21”

“19:20 escaped death by the skin of my teeth: This is an idiom for a narrow escape; the Hebrew could also mean that Job was reduced to a skeleton with a toothy skull.”

“bone: Job 30:30, Job 33:19-22; Psa 22:14-17, Psa 32:3, Psa 32:4, Psa 38:3, Psa 102:3, Psa 102:5; Lam 4:8 and to: or, as and I am: Job 2:4-6, Job 7:5; Lam 3:4, Lam 5:10 Job 19:21”