Proverbs 12:18

12:18 Speaking recklessly ¹  is like the thrusts of a sword,

but the words ²  of the wise bring ³  healing. ⁴ 

Job 29:17

29:17 I broke the fangs ⁵  of the wicked,

and made him drop ⁶  his prey from his teeth.

Psalms 3:7

3:7 Rise up, ⁷  Lord!

Deliver me, my God!

Yes, ⁸  you will strike ⁹  all my enemies on the jaw;

you will break the teeth ¹⁰  of the wicked. ¹¹ 

Psalms 52:2

52:2 Your tongue carries out your destructive plans; ¹² 

it is as effective as a sharp razor, O deceiver. ¹³ 

Psalms 57:4

57:4 I am surrounded by lions;

I lie down ¹⁴  among those who want to devour me; ¹⁵ 

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

whose tongues are a sharp sword. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 58:6

58:6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths!

Smash the jawbones of the lions, O Lord!

Daniel 7:5-7

7:5 “Then ¹⁷  a second beast appeared, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs ¹⁸  in its mouth between its teeth. ¹⁹  It was told, ²⁰  ‘Get up and devour much flesh!’

7:6 “After these things, ²¹  as I was watching, another beast ²²  like a leopard appeared, with four bird-like wings on its back. ²³  This beast had four heads, ²⁴  and ruling authority was given to it.

7:7 “After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ²⁵  a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ²⁶  It had two large rows ²⁷  of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.

Revelation 9:8

9:8 They ²⁸  had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

[12:18]  ¹ tn The term בּוֹטֶה (boteh) means “to speak rashly [or, thoughtlessly]” (e.g., Lev 5:4; Num 30:7).

[12:18]  ² tn Heb “the tongue” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The term לָשׁוֹן (lashon, “tongue”) functions as a metonymy of cause for what is said.

[12:18]  ³ tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[12:18]  ⁴ sn Healing is a metonymy of effect. Healing words are the opposite of the cutting, irresponsible words. What the wise say is faithful and true, gentle and kind, uplifting and encouraging; so their words bring healing.

[29:17]  ⁵ tn The word rendered “fangs” actually means “teeth,” i.e., the molars probably; it is used frequently of the teeth of wild beasts. Of course, the language is here figurative, comparing the oppressing enemy to a preying animal.

[29:17]  ⁶ tn “I made [him] drop.” The verb means “to throw; to cast,” throw in the sense of “to throw away.” But in the context with the figure of the beast with prey in its mouth, “drop” or “cast away” is the idea. Driver finds another cognate meaning “rescue” (see AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 163).

[3:7]  ⁷ tn In v. 2 the psalmist describes his enemies as those who “confront” him (קָמִים [qamim], literally, “rise up against him”). Now, using the same verbal root (קוּם, qum) he asks the Lord to rise up (קוּמָה, qumah) in his defense.

[3:7]  ⁸ tn Elsewhere in the psalms the particle כִּי (ki), when collocated with a perfect verbal form and subordinated to a preceding imperative directed to God, almost always has an explanatory or causal force (“for, because”) and introduces a motivating argument for why God should respond positively to the request (see Pss 5:10; 6:2; 12:1; 16:1; 41:4; 55:9; 56:1; 57:1; 60:2; 69:1; 74:20; 119:94; 123:3; 142:6; 143:8). (On three occasions the כִּי is recitative after a verb of perception [“see/know that,” see Pss 4:3; 25:19; 119:159]). If כִּי is taken as explanatory here, then the psalmist is arguing that God should deliver him now because that is what God characteristically does. However, such a motivating argument is not used in the passages cited above. The motivating argument usually focuses on the nature of the psalmist’s dilemma or the fact that he trusts in the Lord. For this reason it is unlikely that כִּי has its normal force here. Most scholars understand the particle כִּי as having an asseverative (emphasizing) function here (“indeed, yes”; NEB leaves the particle untranslated).

[3:7]  ⁹ tn If the particle כִּי (ki) is taken as explanatory, then the perfect verbal forms in v. 7b would describe God’s characteristic behavior. However, as pointed out in the preceding note on the word “yes,” the particle probably has an asseverative force here. If so, the perfects may be taken as indicating rhetorically the psalmist’s certitude and confidence that God will intervene. The psalmist is so confident of God’s positive response to his prayer, he can describe God’s assault on his enemies as if it had already happened. Such confidence is consistent with the mood of the psalm, as expressed before (vv. 3-6) and after this (v. 8). Another option is to take the perfects as precative, expressing a wish or request (“Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked”). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. However, not all grammarians are convinced that the perfect is used as a precative in biblical Hebrew.

[3:7]  ¹⁰ sn The expression break the teeth may envision violent hand-to hand combat, though it is possible that the enemies are pictured here as a dangerous animal (see Job 29:17).

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn In the psalms the Hebrew term רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked”) describes people who are proud, practical atheists (Ps 10:2, 4, 11) who hate God’s commands, commit sinful deeds, speak lies and slander (Ps 50:16-20), and cheat others (Ps 37:21). They oppose God and his people.

[52:2]  ¹² tn Heb “destruction your tongue devises.”

[52:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “like a sharpened razor, doer of deceit.” The masculine participle עָשָׂה (’asah) is understood as a substantival vocative, addressed to the powerful man.

[57:4]  ¹⁴ tn The cohortative form אֶשְׁכְּבָה (’eshkÿvah, “I lie down”) is problematic, for it does not seem to carry one of the normal functions of the cohortative (resolve or request). One possibility is that the form here is a “pseudo-cohortative” used here in a gnomic sense (IBHS 576-77 §34.5.3b).

[57:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew verb לָהַט (lahat) is here understood as a hapax legomenon meaning “devour” (see HALOT 521 s.v. II להט), a homonym of the more common verb meaning “to burn.” A more traditional interpretation takes the verb from this latter root and translates, “those who are aflame” (see BDB 529 s.v.; cf. NASB “those who breathe forth fire”).

[57:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my life, in the midst of lions, I lie down, devouring ones, sons of mankind, their teeth a spear and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” The syntax of the verse is difficult. Another option is to take “my life” with the preceding verse. For this to make sense, one must add a verb, perhaps “and may he deliver” (cf. the LXX), before the phrase. One might then translate, “May God send his loyal love and faithfulness and deliver my life.” If one does take “my life” with v. 4, then the parallelism of v. 5 is altered and one might translate: “in the midst of lions I lie down, [among] men who want to devour me, whose teeth….”

[7:5]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “and behold.”

[7:5]  ¹⁸ sn The three ribs held securely in the mouth of the bear, perhaps representing Media-Persia, apparently symbolize military conquest, but the exact identity of the “ribs” is not clear. Possibly it is a reference to the Persian conquest of Lydia, Egypt, and Babylonia.

[7:5]  ¹⁹ tc The LXX lacks the phrase “between its teeth.”

[7:5]  ²⁰ tn Aram “and thus they were saying to it.”

[7:6]  ²¹ tn Aram “this.” So also in v. 7.

[7:6]  ²² tn Aram “and behold, another one.”

[7:6]  ²³ tn Or “sides.”

[7:6]  ²⁴ sn If the third animal is Greece, the most likely identification of these four heads is the four-fold division of the empire of Alexander the Great following his death. See note on Dan 8:8.

[7:7]  ²⁵ tn The Aramaic text has also “and behold.” So also in vv. 8, 13.

[7:7]  ²⁶ sn The fourth animal differs from the others in that it is nondescript. Apparently it was so fearsome that Daniel could find nothing with which to compare it. Attempts to identify this animal as an elephant or other known creature are conjectural.

[7:7]  ²⁷ tn The Aramaic word for “teeth” is dual rather than plural, suggesting two rows of teeth.

[9:8]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.