The mouth (as the means of blowing ), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech ); specifically edge , portion or side ; adverbially (with preposition) according to
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פֶּה (peh) first names the physical mouth. Exodus 4:10-12 places Moses' mouth and God's enabling speech together, Numbers 22:28 says the LORD opens the donkey's mouth, Isaiah 6:7 touches the prophet's mouth in a cleansing vision, and Job 40:4 pictures a hand laid over the mouth in humbled silence.
Reader summary
Full entry for פֶּה (H6310) · Open the biblical lexicon
פֶּה (peh) first names the physical mouth. Exodus 4:10-12 places Moses' mouth and God's enabling speech together, Numbers 22:28 says the LORD opens the donkey's mouth, Isaiah 6:7 touches the prophet's mouth in a cleansing vision, and Job 40:4 pictures a hand laid over the mouth in humbled silence.
The BSB source-word alignment has 497 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (50), My mouth (26), the mouth (21), command (19), his mouth (19).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (67), Proverbs (55), Numbers (49), Job (36).
This entry includes 5 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
פֶּה (peh) first names the physical mouth. Exodus 4:10-12 places Moses' mouth and God's enabling speech together, Numbers 22:28 says the Lord opens the donkey's mouth, Isaiah 6:7 touches the prophet's mouth in a cleansing vision, and Job 40:4 pictures a hand laid over the mouth in humbled silence. The bodily sense grounds, but does not determine, the noun's wider idioms.
Peh can refer to spoken words, command, or authoritative instruction. Israel journeys according to the Lord's command in Exodus 17:1 and Numbers 9:18, Deuteronomy 8:3 speaks of what proceeds from the Lord's mouth, and Deuteronomy 18:18 describes God's words placed in a prophet's mouth. Jeremiah 1:9 and Ezekiel 3:17 likewise connect commissioned speech with divine authority. Those texts do not make every confident religious statement God's word; commission, content, and fidelity remain decisive.
Other constructions must remain visible. Exodus 17:13 uses the mouth or edge of the sword, and peh can mark proportion or what accords with a stated measure. Wisdom evaluates human speech: Proverbs 10:11 calls the righteous person's mouth a fountain of life, Proverbs 18:20 attends to speech's fruit, and Proverbs 21:23 commends guarding mouth and tongue. The noun can name the organ, speech, command, or an idiomatic edge without making all uses interchangeable.
Peh moves from the bodily mouth to speech, command, prophetic utterance, opening, proportion, and an object's edge. The canonical concern is not only that words are spoken but who authorizes them, whether they are true, and what fruit they bear.
Moses describes difficulty of mouth and speech when resisting his commission.
God promises to be with Moses' mouth and teach him what to speak.
The idiom mouth of the sword refers to its edge in Israel's battle with Amalek.
The Lord opens the donkey's mouth, interrupting Balaam's failure to perceive danger.
Israel's life depends on everything proceeding from the Lord's mouth, within instruction about wilderness dependence.
God promises to place words in the prophet's mouth and holds hearers accountable to the commissioned message.
The Lord touches Jeremiah's mouth and appoints his words within the prophet's call.
The prayer asks that the words of the mouth and meditation of the heart be acceptable to God.
Guarding mouth and tongue is presented as protection from trouble.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Speech-organ extended to mean edge, boundary, or measure; "according to the mouth" expresses conformity.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 498 lexical occurrence verses.
פֶּה is built from this root:
In wisdom literature, the mouth represents the outward expression of one's character.Proverbs 10:11
The term emphasizes spoken words as expressions of inner character.Proverbs 10:31
Speech functions as a powerful tool that can either build or destroy.Proverbs 11:11
Speech reveals the moral condition of the heart.Proverbs 11:9
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Peh gives teachers a disciplined way to connect speech with embodiment, authority, and consequence. Moses' hesitation invites care for limited speakers rather than contempt; God's promise concerns a particular commission, not a guarantee that every utterance will be flawless. Prophetic-mouth texts demand fidelity to God's message and therefore oppose self-authorized claims that evade testing.
Psalms join spoken words to inner meditation, while Proverbs measures speech by truth, restraint, and its effect on neighbors. Application should include listening, accessibility, confession, careful public teaching, resistance to slander, and repair after harmful words. The sword-edge idiom also warns against building a speech theology from every occurrence.
A mouth can bless or wound, but the governing passage decides which sense is present.
Deut.8.3
H6310 is a concrete noun extended through common constructions. Mouth, command, speech, edge, opening, and proportion are contextual senses, not separate theological definitions imposed on every occurrence.
Jesus and the apostles teach that speech reveals the heart, must be truthful, and can build or harm communities. Matthew's use of Deuteronomy 8:3 preserves the dependence theme, while New Testament prophetic and teaching claims require their own tests and contexts.