What Does Job 41:14 Mean in the King James?
Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The face is a gate whose opening is ringed with terror.
THE MEANING
You meet an image of power as a sealed threshold: no one can claim the strength to open the face, and terror rings the teeth. The question exposes the limit of human access to this fearsome presence.
THE ROOT
פִּתֵּחַ
pitteaḥ
GROWS FROM
פ־ת־ח
Open, loosen, make an opening.
The root פ־ת־ח (pataḥ, open) also gives petach, an opening or doorway, and pittuach, carved or engraved work. The face is imagined as a constructed threshold, but its opening is guarded by teeth.
ALSO GROWS
petach: Opening, doorway
פֶּתַח
The word for opening makes the face’s doors a literal threshold in the image.
pittuach: Carving, engraving
פִּתּוּחַ
The same root can describe making a mark or opening in a surface, deepening the image of a face shaped as a boundary.
פָּנִים
panim
GROWS FROM
פ־נ־ה
Turn, face toward.
Panim (face, presence) is linked to panah (turn, face toward), so the word can carry the sense of a presence turned toward you. Here that presence is not a neutral surface: it confronts you as doors surrounded by teeth.
ALSO GROWS
panah: Turn, face toward
פָּנָה
This related verb lets ‘face’ suggest an encounter with what is turned toward you.
lifnei: Before, in front of
לִפְנֵי
This related form names being before a presence; the verse places the encounter at the creature’s face.
אֵימָה
eimah
GROWS FROM
א־י־ם
Terrify, bring dread.
“terrible” in this verse is eimah. The Hebrew names eimah (terror, dread) around the teeth, making terror the visible perimeter of the mouth. The danger is not softened into an abstract feeling; it is set at the threshold itself.
ALSO GROWS
ayom: Dreadful, fearsome
אָיוֹם
This related adjective keeps the root’s force of dread in a description of what inspires fear.
iyyum: Threat, menace
אִיּוּם
This related noun shows the same root’s movement from terror felt to danger that threatens.
THE PATTERN
A guarded opening exposes the limits of human power, while the one who holds the threshold’s key determines what opens.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;THE THREAD
O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.Job’s ‘open’ and the psalm’s ‘open’ share פ־ת־ח (pataḥ, open). Here the face opens onto terror; in the psalm, the same root opens lips to praise, showing how an opening reveals what lies behind it.
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