Job 39:11
in Job 39Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave to him thy labor?
KJV
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
8 notes on this verseWilt thou have confidence in his great strength, and wilt thou leave to him thy labours? [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 33. The Lord had confidence in the strength of this rhinoceros; because the more He endured him cruelly inflicting hardships upon Him, the more firmly He foresaw him enduring adversities for His sake. To whom also He left the labours, which He Himself had endured in the flesh; because He led him when converted even to the imitation of His own Passion.
This site's exposition
Will the wild ox consent to serve you
on Job 39:9-12
The King James reads unicorn for the Hebrew re'em, which Clarke traces through the older readings and Delitzsch identifies as the great untamable “wild ox”. The questions run through a farmer's year, the “manger”, the “furrow”, the “harness” and the “threshing floor”, and the wild ox meets none of them.
This site's exposition
rely on his great strength
Barnes notes the trust a farmer places in his ox. Great strength alone earns no such trust, and the wild ox cannot be tamed enough to carry it. Henry adds that a will to work is as much the gift of God as the strength for it.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Some strong animals are set free to guard the fields against thieves or animals which can devastate the standing grain, as fields are guarded in this way by ferocious dogs, but this cannot be done with the rhinoceros, because he is not domesticated, and so …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
Wilt thou have confidence in his great strength, and wilt thou leave to him thy labours? 8. The Lord asserts that He has confidence in the strength of the rhinoceros; because He inclined the powers, which He had conferred for a temporal purpose on an earthly prince, to minister to His reverence, in order that by the power he had received, through which he had, heretofore, been puffed up against God, he might now bestow on God religious obedience. For the more powerful he is toward the world, the more does he prevail for the Creator of the world. For because he is himself dreaded by his subjects, he persuades them the more readily, the more he points out with his power, Who is truly to be feared. Let it be said then; Wilt thou have confidence in his great strength? As if it were said, As I, Who see, that the powers of earthly princes are about to submit to My worship. For I regard those things which thou art now doing, as of so much the less consequence, the more I now foresee, that I shall bend down to Myself even the greater powers of this world. But it is well subjoined; And wilt thou leave to him thy labours? For the Lord left His labours to this rhinoceros, because He entrusted to an earthly prince, on his conversion, that Church which He purchased by His own death, because, namely, He committed to his hand the great anxiety of preserving the peace of the faith.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great?....
A disposition to labour is as much the gift of God as an ability for it; and it is a great mercy if, where God gives strength for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, and reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do; for, as among beasts, so among men, those may justly be reckoned wild and abandoned to the deserts who have no mind either to take pains or to do good.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Wilt thou trust him? - As thou dost the ox. In the domestic animals great confidence is of necessity placed, and the reliance on the fidelity of the ox and the horse is not usually misplaced. The idea here is, that the unicorn could not be so tamed that important interests could be safely entrusted to him. Because his strength is great? - Wilt thou consider his strength as a reason why important interests might be entrusted to him?
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Will you rely on him to gather your grain because his strength is great and he can bear great burdens?
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
to a furrow with his rope (Or did you tie a wild ox because of the furrow of your ox?) rope Heb. עבתו, a rope with which they tie [oxen] to the furrows of the plow.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲֽתִבְטַח־ | hativtach- | ¿ will you trust | H982 → | 120 times |
| בּ֭וֹ | bo | in it | ||
| כִּי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| רַ֣ב | rav | [is] great | H7227 → | 454 times |
| כֹּח֑וֹ | kocho | strength its | H3581 → | 126 times |
| וְתַעֲזֹ֖ב | vetaazo | so you may leave? | H5800 → | 215 times |
| אֵלָ֣יו | ʾelav | to it | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יְגִיעֶֽךָ׃ | yegiekha | toil your | H3018 → | 16 times |
הֲֽתִבְטַח־¿ will you trust
hativtach-H982 →120 times
בּ֭וֹin it
bo
כִּי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
רַ֣ב[is] great
ravH7227 →454 times
כֹּח֑וֹstrength its
kochoH3581 →126 times
וְתַעֲזֹ֖בso you may leave?
vetaazoH5800 →215 times
אֵלָ֣יוto it
ʾelavH413 →5510 times
יְגִיעֶֽךָ׃toil your
yegiekhaH3018 →16 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the…
it leads to
- Psalms 8:4–8
what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Colossians 3:10
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
- Ephesians 4:24
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Psalms 8:4–8
Through
Psalms 20:7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
it leads to
- Isaiah 31:1
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…
- Jeremiah 17:5
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Proverbs 21:31
A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory is of the LORD.
- Psalms 33:16–17
No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- Isaiah 31:1
Through
Genesis 1:28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature…
it leads to
- Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
- Genesis 9:1
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.