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You made the train as the doors were closing. You passed the exam by one mark. You hit the brakes and stopped a hand’s width from the car in front. Your heart is still pounding, and you laugh and say it: “I made it by the skin of my teeth.”
So what is the by the skin of my teeth meaning? Today it means you only just made it, a near miss. But the phrase is not a modern saying. It comes from the Bible, from the book of Job. And when Job first said it, he was not laughing. He was saying it from the lowest point of his whole life.
Here is the part most people never hear: five verses after Job says it, he says the boldest, most hopeful line in his whole book.
Where “By the Skin of My Teeth” Comes From
The words are in Job 19:20. In the King James Version it reads:
“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” (Job 19:20, KJV)
Notice one small thing. The Bible says with the skin of my teeth, not by. Over time, English speakers changed it to “by,” and it became the near-miss saying we know. The play The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1943, helped keep the phrase in everyday speech.
But Job was not talking about a near miss. He was describing his own body. Look at the first half of the verse: “My bone cleaveth to my skin.” He is so thin that his skin hangs on his bones. Earlier in the book, Job has lost his children, his wealth, and his health. In Job 2:8 he “took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.” A piece of broken pot was all he had to scrape his sores.
So “escaped with the skin of my teeth” was not Job saying “I got away clean.” It was Job saying, “This is all that’s left of me.”
What Does “Skin of My Teeth” Actually Mean in Hebrew?
Here is an honest answer: nobody is fully sure. Teeth don’t have skin. That is part of what makes the phrase so strange, and why scholars have argued over it for a long time.
A few readings are common:
- The gums. Some think Job means the gums, the thin flesh around the teeth. His body is wasted, and only the thinnest flesh is left.
- Almost nothing. Others think the point is that teeth have no skin at all. To escape “with the skin of my teeth” is to escape with nothing. Job is saying he has come out with less than nothing.
- A hard text. Some scholars think the Hebrew line is difficult to read, and that older copies may have said something a little different.
It is better to say “we don’t know for sure” than to pretend. But every reading lands in the same place. Job is not bragging about a close escape. He is describing a man worn down to almost nothing.
Read What Job Says Next
Most people stop at verse 20. That is a shame, because the next five verses are some of the most surprising in the Bible.
First, Job begs his friends: “Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me” (Job 19:21). They don’t. Just a few lines earlier he had said, “My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me” (Job 19:14). His family is gone. His friends are against him.
Then Job makes a wish:
“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!” (Job 19:23-24, KJV)
Stop and think about that. A man sitting in the ashes, with no one listening, wishes that someone would write his words down so they would last forever. He had no idea that his words would be copied for thousands of years, translated into hundreds of languages, and read by you, today, on a phone. His wish came true. Even his near-miss line ended up in our everyday speech.
And then, at verse 25, out of nowhere:
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:25-27, KJV)
This is the line that opens the third part of Handel’s Messiah. It’s one of the most famous sentences of hope ever written. And it comes five verses after “I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” Same chapter. Same speech. Same man in the same ashes.
The Word “Redeemer” Is a Family Word
This is the detail that ties it all together. The Hebrew word for “redeemer” here is go’el. A go’el was a close family member whose job was to stand up for you when you could not. If you lost your land, the go’el bought it back. If you were in trouble, the go’el stepped in. It’s the same word used for Boaz in the book of Ruth, the relative who stepped in to rescue Ruth and Naomi.
Now read Job 19 again with that in mind. In verse 14 Job says, “My kinsfolk have failed.” His family let him down. His friends turned on him. And in verse 25 he reaches past all of them and says: I have a go’el. I have a family member who will not fail. And that one is alive.
Job didn’t say it because things got better. Nothing had changed. He was still sitting in the ashes, still skin and bone. He said “I know” while he was still barely hanging on.
If that line speaks to you, you might also like how Jesus used a similar picture of a tight squeeze in the real meaning of “straight and narrow”.
When You’re Getting By on the Skin of Your Teeth
Here is the turn. We usually think hope comes after the hard part. First you get through it, then you feel hopeful. Job turns that around. His boldest words came from inside the hard part, not after it.
Maybe you are there right now. Not a funny near miss, but the real kind. The bills are just barely paid. The marriage is just barely holding. You got out of bed today, and that took everything. You feel like Job: this is all that’s left of me.
Job 19 says you don’t have to wait until you feel better to say “I know.” Barely surviving and real hope can sit in the same breath. They did for Job. Both lines are in the same speech, five verses apart.
And Job’s hope was not wasted. At the end of the book he says to God, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5). The man who said “mine eyes shall behold” in chapter 19 did see. Not because he escaped clean, but because God met him where he was.
The prophet Jeremiah did something like this too, when he bought a field while the army was at the gate. Hope that acts before anything changes.
A good place to start:
The Beginner’s Guide to Feeling God’s Presence Every Day
A simple guide to sensing that God is near in ordinary moments, even the ones where you’re barely hanging on.
Get the free guide. Free.
Actions to Take Today
- Read Job 19:20-27 out loud, all in one go. It takes about a minute. Notice how fast it goes from “skin of my teeth” to “I know.”
- Write your own verse 20 and verse 25. On one line, write honestly how close to empty you feel. On the next line, write one thing you still know about God, even if it’s small. Keep them together on the same page, the way Job did.
- Be someone’s go’el this week. Job’s friends failed him. Think of one person who is barely getting by, and send them a message today that simply says, “I’m thinking of you. How are you really doing?”
Not sure which verse fits what you’re feeling right now? Try our free Bible Verse for How I Feel tool.
Journaling Prompts
- When was the last time you got through something “by the skin of your teeth”? What was left of you afterward?
- Job’s family and friends failed him. Who have you hoped would stand up for you, and didn’t?
- What would it look like for you to say “I know” before anything gets better?
A Prayer for When You’re Barely Hanging On
God, I feel like Job right now. Some days I’m just skin and bone, and I don’t have much left to give. People I counted on haven’t shown up, and I’m tired of waiting to feel better. But I want to say it anyway, the way Job did, right here in the ashes: I know my Redeemer lives. Stand up for me where I can’t stand up for myself, and let me see You for myself. Amen.
Discussion Question
Do you think real hope can only come after the hard part is over, or can it show up right in the middle of it, like it did for Job? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Share This
- “By the skin of my teeth” comes from Job 19:20, said at his lowest point. Five verses later he says, “I know that my redeemer liveth.” Hope doesn’t wait for you to feel better.
- I always used “by the skin of my teeth” for a near miss. Turns out Job said it when he had almost nothing left, and in the same speech he says the most hopeful line in his book. Barely hanging on and “I know” can sit in the same breath.
- Job wished his words would be “printed in a book” and “graven in the rock for ever.” He was sitting in ashes with no one listening. Thousands of years later, we still quote him.
Questions People Ask About “By the Skin of My Teeth”
What does “by the skin of my teeth” mean?
“By the skin of my teeth” means only just making it, or escaping by the smallest possible margin. Today people use it for a near miss, like catching a train as the doors close. The phrase comes from the Bible, in Job 19:20, where Job used it to describe being worn down to almost nothing during his suffering.
Where is “by the skin of my teeth” in the Bible?
The phrase is in Job 19:20. The King James Version reads: “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” The original wording is “with the skin of my teeth,” and English speakers later changed it to “by the skin of my teeth.”
What did Job mean by “the skin of my teeth”?
Scholars are not fully sure what Job meant by “the skin of my teeth” in Job 19:20, because teeth have no skin. Some think it refers to the gums. Others think it means Job escaped with nothing at all. Every reading agrees that Job was describing himself as worn down to almost nothing, not bragging about a close escape.
What does Job say after “by the skin of my teeth”?
Five verses after Job 19:20, Job says, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job 19:25, KJV). Between the two lines, Job begs his friends for pity and wishes his words could be written down forever. The most hopeful line in the book of Job comes in the same speech as his lowest moment.
What does “redeemer” mean in Job 19:25?
The Hebrew word for “redeemer” in Job 19:25 is go’el, which means a close family member who stands up for you, buys back what you lost, and rescues you when you cannot rescue yourself. The same word is used for Boaz in the book of Ruth. Job used it right after saying his own kinsfolk had failed him.
