Bible Strands
Job 29:17
I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job speaks in a retrospective monologue addressing an unspecified audience, recounting his former civic leadership and protective role before his current affliction. He positions himself as a former guardian who actively intervened for vulnerable people.
The words — The Hebrew verb אֲשַׁבֵּר (’a.sha.be.re) means "I broke" or "I shattered," and מְתַלְעוֹת (me.ta.le.‘ot) translates literally to "jaws" or "fangs." These terms frame the speaker’s past actions as decisive physical intervention against oppressors.
The thread — This imagery of breaking jaws and teeth recurs in Psalms 3:7, where the psalmist petitions God to strike enemies on the jaw, and in Proverbs 30:14, which describes a predatory generation with teeth like swords. The motif also appears in 1 Samuel 17:35, where a shepherd delivers a lamb from a predator’s mouth.
Why it lands — The text asserts a past reality of decisive intervention for the oppressed, establishing the speaker’s claim to righteous civic action. It demands the reader evaluate whether pastI have to answer now.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
Cross-references
- Psalms 3:7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.
- Proverbs 30:14 there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.
- 1 Samuel 17:35 I went after it, struck it down, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it.
- Psalms 58:8 Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
- Psalms 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
- Psalms 124:3 when their anger flared against us, then they would have swallowed us alive,