Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 19:20

"My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." — Job 19:20 (ASV)

(20) My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh in one indistinguishable mass, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth, because the teeth have no skin, or, as others explain, because the teeth have fallen out. This expression, which is by no means clear in the context, has passed into a proverb expressing a very narrow escape—a meaning which can only by inference be obtained from this place in Job.