Tooth

TOOTH. The Hebrews call Ivory, Tooth, or the Elephant’s Tooth: They sometimes also called naked and craggy 1 Sam. xiv. 4.Rocks by the Name of Teeth: Quasi in modum dentium scopuli. And the Rock from which God caused the Water to gush out, for quenching Samson’s Thirst, is called Maktesh, that is to say, the Jaw-Tooth. Judg. xv. 19. Exod. xxi. 24.When Moses appointed the Law of Retribution, Legem Talionis, he ordered they should have Tooth for Tooth. To grind the Teeth, to gnash the Teeth, are Tokens of Sorrow, Despair, and Passion: Frenduerunt super me dentibus suis, says the Psalmist. Psal. xxxiv. 16. Psal. lvii. 7. Ezek. xviii. 2.God breaks the Teeth of the Wicked; he puts it out of their power to injure good Men. The Wicked complain, that the Fathers have eaten sowre Grapes, by which their Childrens Teeth have been set on edge: As if they would accuse God of Injustice, for punishing the Innocent, and sparing the Guilty. Amos tells the prevaricating Jews,¹ that God had sent them cleanness of teeth, that is to say, Famine: They should not have wherewithal to defile their Teeth. St. Jerome translates it, stuporem dentium. The Gospel in several Places speaks of the gnashing of the Teeth of the Damned, out of Rage and Despair. David says, that his Enemies have their Teeth as sharp and Psal. lvi. 5.piercing as Swords, or Arrows. Dentes eorum arma & sagittæ.

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