Job 39:12
in Job 39Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wilt thou confide in him, that he will bring home thy seed, And gather the grain of thy threshing-floor?
KJV
Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Wilt thou believe him? - That is, wilt thou trust him with the productions of the field? The idea is, that he was an untamed and unsubdued animal. He could not be governed, like the camel or the ox. If the sheaves of the harvest were laid on him, there would be no certainty that he would convey them where the farmer wished them. And gather it into thy barn? - Or, rather, “to thy threshing-floor,” for so the word used here (גרן gôren) means.
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
gather it to your threshing floor
Barnes gives the threshing floor from the Hebrew goren. Grain laid on a wild ox might go anywhere he pleased. Gregory read the grain as the word preached and the threshing floor as the Church.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
Wilt thou trust him to bring back thy seed to thee, and to gather thy floor? [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION]
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
Wilt thou trust him, to bring back thy seed to thee, and to gather thy floor? 9. What else is meant by 'seed,' but the word of preaching? As the Truth says in the Gospel, A sower went forth to sow; [Matt. 13, 3] and as the Prophet says; Blessed are ye who sow upon all waters. [Is. 32, 20] What else but the Church, ought to be understood by the threshing floor? Of which it is said by the voice of the Forerunner; And He will throughly purge His floor. [Matt. 3, 12] Who therefore could believe, in the beginning of the rising Church, when that unconquered sovereignty of the world was raging with so many threats and tortures against her, that this rhinoceros would bring back seed to God, that is, repay by his works the word of preaching which he had received? Which of the infirm could then believe, that he would gather His floor? For behold, he is now promulgating laws for the Church, who was before raging against it with various torments. Behold, whatever nations he has been able to seize, he brings by persuasion to the grace of faith; and points out eternal life to those, to whom, when captured, he secures their present life. Why is this? Because he is now, in truth, gathering the floor, which before he used to winnow, by scattering it with his proud horn. Let blessed Job therefore hear what the princes of the Gentiles do, and not exalt himself in himself with the glory of his own so great virtue. Let the powerful prince hear also, with what devotion the mightier princes of this world become the servants of God, and let not him who has a pattern in others, pervert his virtue, in consequence of its singularity, into the sin of pride. For though God beheld no one like him at that time, yet He foresaw many, by whom to repress his boasting. 10. […]
Likewise, you cannot use him like a strong farm hand to reap the fruits of the earth, and so he says, "Will you have faith in him that he will render the seed to you and bring it together on your threshing floor?", like a …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Wilt thou believe him that he will bring home thy seed?....
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.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
That he will bring home thy seed - Thou canst make no domestic nor agricultural use of him.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
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 ▾
The wing of the renanim rejoices This is the name of a huge bird, called in the language of the Mishnah, Bar Yochni (Bechoroth 57b).
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
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲתַאֲמִ֣ין | hataamin | ¿ will you trust | H539 → | 106 times |
| בּ֭וֹ | bo | in it | ||
| כִּי־ | ki- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יָשִׁ֣יב | yashuv | it will bring back | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| זַרְעֶ֑ךָ | zarekha | seed your | H2233 → | 229 times |
| וְֽגָרְנְךָ֥ | vegarenekha | and threshing floor your | H1637 → | |
| יֶאֱסֹֽף׃ | yeesof | it will gather | H622 → | 200 times |
הֲתַאֲמִ֣ין¿ will you trust
hataaminH539 →106 times
בּ֭וֹin it
bo
כִּי־that
ki-H3588 →4482 times
יָשִׁ֣יבit will bring back
yashuvH7725 →1056 times
זַרְעֶ֑ךָseed your
zarekhaH2233 →229 times
וְֽגָרְנְךָ֥and threshing floor your
vegarenekhaH1637 →
יֶאֱסֹֽף׃it will gather
yeesofH622 →200 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
Matthew 3:2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
it leads to
- Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
- Mark 1:15
“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
- Luke 24:47
and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
- Matthew 4:17
Through
Matthew 13:30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
it leads to
- Matthew 3:12
His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- 1 Timothy 5:24
The sins of some men are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others do not surface until later.
- Matthew 3:12
Through
Haggai 2:19Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”
it leads to
- Malachi 3:10
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of…
- Habakkuk 3:17–18
Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold…
- Proverbs 3:9–10
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your harvest;
- Malachi 3:10
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.