Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
Parallel translations
- WEB Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.
- KJV Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.
- BSB Blessed are those who sow beside abundant waters, who let the ox and donkey range freely.
- NASB How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters, Who let the ox and the donkey out freely.
- NLT the Lord will greatly bless his people. Wherever they plant seed, bountiful crops will spring up. Their cattle and donkeys will graze freely.
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
Blessed are those who sow by the waters, freely sending out their ox and donkey. It matters because it pictures the abundant, secure flourishing of God's blessed people.
Overview
The chapter ends with a beatitude on those who sow beside abundant waters with their working animals free to roam. The image conveys peaceful prosperity and fruitful labor. It depicts the blessed life under God's renewing Spirit, a foretaste of the flourishing God grants His people in the age of the righteous King.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eccl 11:1Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.
- Isa 30:23–24He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.
- Isa 55:10–11For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
- Acts 2:41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
- Isa 19:5–7The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.
- 1 Cor 3:6I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
- 1 Cor 9:9–11For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,
- Acts 4:4But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
- Acts 5:14More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
- Jas 3:18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
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 32:20 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.