Job 19:20

The desertion and loathing of mankind is universal, and to this is added his exhausted state from disease.

My bone cleaveth to my skin The words describe his emaciated condition, cf. Lamentations 4:8; Psalms 102:5, My bones cleave to my skin (marg. flesh); Psalms 22:17, I may tell (count) all my bones.

escaped with the skin of my teeth i. e. with nothing else. The "skin of my teeth" is usually held to mean the gums, which Job represents as still sound, otherwise he would be unable to speak; the last stage of his disease has not yet been reached. In Job 19:17 however he referred to his fetid breath, and in such distempers the mouth and throat are usually rapidly affected. Besides, such a sense is prosaic and flat. The phrase is probably proverbial; the meaning of Job being that he is wholly fallen a prey to his disease, cf. Amos 3:12.