Hebrew word · H6374
פִּיפִיָּה
pifiyot
tooth
A doubled form of peh, "mouth." It means edges, especially cutting edges. It occurs only here and Ps 149:6 ("a sword of pîpiyyôt," i.e. two-edged). Hebrew regularly speaks of a sword's "mouth" because it "devours" (Deut 32:42; Judg 3:16, "a sword with two mouths").
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
tooth
Another spelling of pe.yah (פֵּיָה "two-edged" H6366)
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
From the study of Isaiah 41:15
- Range of meaning
A doubled form of peh, "mouth." It means edges, especially cutting edges. It occurs only here and Ps 149:6 ("a sword of pîpiyyôt," i.e. two-edged). Hebrew regularly speaks of a sword's "mouth" because it "devours" (Deut 32:42; Judg 3:16, "a sword with two mouths").
- Against the English
KJV says "having teeth," BSB and NIV "with many teeth," and NASB "double edges." "Teeth" fits the sledge picture well and keeps the eating-mouth metaphor. "Many" is an inference from the plural and the doubled form, not a separate word. "Double edges" follows the sword usage but is less suited to a sledge.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ps 149:6, and the ordinary "mouth of the sword" idiom throughout the Hebrew Bible.
- Range of meaning
A plural made by doubling peh, 'mouth': literally 'mouths-mouths', meaning edges or cutting surfaces. With 'sword' it means double-edged. It is used once elsewhere, in Isaiah 41:15, where God makes Israel 'a threshing sledge, sharp, new, having pîpiyyôt' (cutting teeth or blades) to thresh the mountains.
- Against the English
'Two-edged' (KJV, WEB, YLT, ESV, NASB) and 'double-edged' (BSB, NIV) give the correct technical sense. No English version can keep the 'mouth' picture. The supplied gloss 'teeth' reflects Isaiah 41:15, where the blades of a threshing sledge are meant; with a sword, 'edges' is the right sense.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Compare Judges 3:16, Ehud's sword 'with two mouths' (shnê pêyôt), and Proverbs 5:4, 'sharp as a sword of mouths' (ḥerev piyyôt). The Septuagint has distomoi, 'two-mouthed', and the Vulgate ancipites, 'two-headed, double-edged'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 149:6 פִּֽיפִיּ֣וֹת teeth
May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands,
Here: A doubled form of peh, 'mouth': a 'sword of mouths', meaning a blade sharp on both edges. Hebrew pictures a sword's edge as a mouth that eats. The word also echoes the throat in the first half of the line: praise comes from their mouths, and the sword in their hand has 'mouths' too.
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 41:15 פִּֽיפִיּ֑וֹת teeth
Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
Here: A doubled form of peh, "mouth." Hebrew calls a blade's edge its "mouth" because it "eats" (compare Ps 149:6, a sword of pîpiyyôt, "two-edged"). So the sledge's underside is full of biting edges. "Many" in some translations interprets the plural and the doubled form; the word itself is not "many."
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.