Answers about…
teeth in the Bible

Scripture mentions teeth many times.

• Beautiful teeth of Solomon’s bride

  Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes
  Which have come up from their washing,
  All of which bear twins,
  And not one among them has lost her young. —Song of Songs 4:2 LSB

• Aching tooth

  Like an aching tooth and a slipping foot is trust in a treacherous man in a day of distress. —Prov. 25:19

• Demon-possessed man grinds his teeth

  and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” —Mark 9:18

• White teeth

  His eyes are dark from wine,
  And his teeth white from milk. —Gen. 49:12

  Alternate possible meaning: “teeth whiter than milk”

• “Gnashing of teeth”

  indicates utter despair and sorrow or raging anger (Psa. 35:16; 37:12)

  …in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. —Matthew 8:12

  Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. —Acts 7:54

  …He has gnashed at me with His teeth… —Job 16:9 excerpt

• “Cleanness of teeth”

  indicates famine; nothing to eat, so teeth are clean

  “But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities
  And lack of bread in all your places,
  Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares Yahweh. —Amos 4:6 LSB

• By the skin of my teeth

  …I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. —Job 19:20 excerpt

• Shattered teeth

  Arise, O Yahweh; save me, O my God
  For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek;
  You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. —Psalm 3:7

  O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth… —Psa. 58:6 excerpt

• Like vinegar on your teeth

  Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes,
  So is the sluggard to those who send him. —Prov. 10:26

  Meaning: Sending a lazy person to do anything is as irritating as vinegar on your teeth or smoke in your eyes. Or, “As vinegar harmeth the teeth, and smoke harmeth the eyes; so a slow man harmeth them that sent him in the way. (Like vinegar harmeth the teeth, and smoke harmeth the eyes; so a lazy man harmeth those who sent him on the way)” —Wycliffe Bible

• Quick action

  While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very severe plague. —Numbers 11:33 LSB

• Attacking beasts bring punishment

  …the teeth of beasts I will send upon them,
  With the venom of crawling things of the dust. —Deu. 32:24 excerpt

• Broken teeth (toothless lions)

  …the teeth of the young lions are broken, —Job 4:10

• Prophetic toothed beasts

  …another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it —Dan. 7:5 KJV excerpt

  …behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces —Dan. 7:7 KJV excerpt

• “Children’s teeth set on edge”

  Childern suffering for the sins of their fathers

  “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
  ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes,
  But the children’s teeth are set on edge’? —Ezek. 18:2

• Bite myself?

  The ancient Godly man Job, speaking to his friends:

  Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
  And put my life in my hands? —Job 13:14

  Not meant literally, a metaphor for risk-taking; an idiom about putting one’s self in jeopardy (at risk)

  • Who is the man JOB in the Bible?
  • What is the BOOK OF JOB?

• Slave’s tooth

  …if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. —Exodus 21:27

• “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth”

  “Just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.”

  —Exo. 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deu. 19:21

  —PUNISHMENTS mentioned in the Bible

  —What is JUSTICE? What does the Bible say about it?

• Poetic allegorical reference

  The grinders or “grinding ones” mentioned Ecclesiastes 12:3 are teeth. This is part of an extended metaphor (or allegory) comparing the aging human body to a household or house whose inhabitants, structures, and functions gradually fail. This is one of the most vivid descriptions of human physical decline in the Bible.

More information

• Verses containing the word tooth or teeth
• About the human body in the Bible
• What are judgments of God in the Bible?
• What is the justice of God?