Vine Old Testament Dictionary :: Mouth

First, the word means "mouth." It is often used of a human "mouth": "And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth…" (Exod 4:16). In passages such as Num 22:28 this word represents an animal's "mouth": "And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam…." When used of a bird's "mouth" it refers to its beak: "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off…" (Gen 8:11). This word may be used figuratively of "the mouth of the ground," referring to the fact that liquid went into the ground, the ground drank it: "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand" (Gen 4:11, the first biblical occurrence). A similar use appears in Psa 141:7: "Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth…." In this case Sheol is perhaps conceived as a pit and then personified with its "mouth" consuming men once they die.

Second, this word can be used in an impersonal, non-personified sense of an "opening": "And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well's mouth" (Gen 29:2). In Isa 19:7 this word represents the "edge" of a river: "The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away…." Gen 42:27 uses peh to refer to an orifice, or the area within the edges of a sack's opening: "…He espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack's mouth." A similar use appears in Josh 10:18, where the word is used of a cave "entrance" or "opening." Peh can mean not only an opening which is closed in on all sides but a city gate, an opening opened at the top: "…at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors" (Prov 8:3). Exod 28:32 uses this word to mean an "opening" in a tunic around which a collar would be woven: "And there shall be a hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of a habergeon, that it be not rent." Job 30:18 uses the word of the "collar" itself: "By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat" (cf. Psa 133:2). In several passages peh represents the edge of a sword, perhaps in the sense of the part that consumes and/or bites: "And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword…" (Gen 34:26).

Several noteworthy idioms employ peh. In Josh 9:2 "with one mouth" means "with one accord": "…That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord." In Num 12:8 God described His unique communication as "mouth to mouth" or person to person. A similar construction appears in Jer 32:4 (cf. Jer 34:3, which has the same force): "And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, hut shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes." The phrase "from mouth to mouth" or "mouth to mouth can mean "from end to end": "And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another" (2Kings 10:21). "With open mouth" is a phrase which emphasizes greedy consumption: "The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth" (Isa 9:12). Placing one's hands on one's mouth is a gesture of silence (Job 29:9). "To ask someone's mouth" is to ask him personally: "We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth [nasb, "consult her wishes"]" (Gen 24:57). This word can also stand for "utterance" or "order": "Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled…" (Gen 41:40). "The mouth of two witnesses" means their testimony: "Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. . ." (Num 35:30). In Jer 36:4 "from the mouth of Jeremiah" means "by dictation": "…And Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all words of the Lord… upon a [scroll]." Peh used with various prepositions has special meanings. (1) Used with ke, it means "according to." In Lev 25:52 this construction has the special nuance "in proportion to": "And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto [in proportion to] his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption." The meaning "according to" appears in passages such as Num 7:5: "Take it of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service." The phrase means "as much as" in Exod 16:21. A different nuance appears in Job 33:6: "Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead…." (2) When the word is preceded by le, its meanings are quite similar to those just discussed. In Lev 25:51 it means "in proportion to." Jer 29:10 uses the word in the sense "according to": "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon," which can be read literally, "according to the fullness of the seventy years of Babylon." (3) With ‘al the word also means "according to" or "in proportion to" (cf. Lev 27:18).

The phrase pî shenayim (literally, "two mouths") has two different meanings. In Deut 21:17 it means "double portion" (two parts): "But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first-born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath…." This same phrase, however, also means "two thirds": "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein" (Zech 13:8).