Hebrew word · H4459
מַלְתָּעָה
malte'ot
tooth
Jaw-teeth, the large teeth of a predator's jaw: molars, or more loosely 'fangs'. This spelling occurs only here. It is a form of məṯalləʿâ, with two consonants swapped, as HALOT and BDB both note.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) tooth, great tooth
1a) teeth, incisors
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Jaw-teeth, the large teeth of a predator's jaw: molars, or more loosely 'fangs'. This spelling occurs only here. It is a form of məṯalləʿâ, with two consonants swapped, as HALOT and BDB both note.
- Against the English
'Great teeth' (KJV, WEB), 'jaw-teeth' (YLT) and 'fangs' (BSB, ESV, NASB) all point in the right direction. 'Fangs' suits a lion well, but the related passages stress the jaw that grinds and holds prey.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Job 29:17: Job, recalling his time as a righteous judge at the city gate, says 'I broke the jaw-teeth (məṯalləʿôt) of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.' Proverbs 30:14 describes a generation 'whose teeth are swords and whose jaw-teeth are knives, to devour the poor.' Joel 1:6: an invading nation has 'the teeth of a lion and the jaw-teeth of a lioness.' The Septuagint renders the word mylai, 'molars, grinders'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 58:6 מַלְתְּע֥וֹת [the] teeth of
O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
Here: A rare word, found only here. It is a variant spelling of məṯalləʿôt, the big biting and grinding teeth of a predator's jaw (Job 29:17; Joel 1:6; Proverbs 30:14). It moves the picture up from ordinary teeth to a predator's killing bite.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.