Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?
- BSB Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands?
- NKJV Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hands?
- NASB “Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hands?
- NLT Why should I put myself in mortal danger and take my life in my own hands?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job describes the great risk he takes in confronting God. He stakes his very life on his appeal.
Overview
Using proverbial images of taking his flesh in his teeth and his life in his hand, Job acknowledges he is risking everything by pressing his case before God. He knows the danger yet presses on. This conveys the seriousness with which he approaches the living God, neither flippant nor despairing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Judg 12:3And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me?
- Ps 119:109My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.
- Eccl 4:5The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
- Job 18:4He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
- 1 Sam 19:5For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
- 1 Sam 28:21And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me.
- Isa 49:26And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
- Isa 9:20And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 13:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.