Bible Strands
Job 41:14
Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Job in the midst of a detailed description of the creature Leviathan. The speech occurs during a rhetorical exchange emphasizing human limitation.
The words — פִתֵּ֑חַ (fi.Te.ach) translates literally as "has he opened," and שִׁנָּ֣י/ו (shi.Na/v) means "its teeth."
The thread — The imagery of teeth as weapons of terror recurs in Psalms 57:4 and 58:6, while the motif of divinely set boundaries and doors appears in Job 38:10.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to acknowledge human inability to subdue or fully comprehend the creature's formidable design, contrasting human limitation with divine sovereignty.
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
Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
Cross-references
- Job 38:10 when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Psalms 58:6 O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
- 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.
- Ecclesiastes 12:4 when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,
- Daniel 7:7 After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.