“An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”
Parallel translations
- WEB The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
- KJV The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
- BSB The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
- NKJV The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.”
- NLT Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Even dumb animals recognize their owner, yet Israel fails to know and consider its God. The verse indicts His people for a folly worse than that of beasts.
Overview
The comparison shames Judah: the ox and donkey instinctively know who feeds them, but God's people lack such basic discernment. 'Know' here implies covenant relationship and acknowledgment, not mere information. True knowledge of God is finally restored in Christ, in whom the Father is fully revealed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jer 8:7Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
- Jer 4:22“For my people are foolish, they don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
- Isa 44:18They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
- Matt 13:13–15Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand.
- Isa 5:12The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
- Ps 94:8Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?
- Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Isa 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Deut 32:28–29For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
- 2 Pet 3:5For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
- Prov 6:6Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- Jer 9:3–6“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
- Jer 10:14Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Jer 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Matt 13:19When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 1:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.