“Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
Parallel translations
- WEB “But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
- KJV But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
- BSB But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.
- NKJV “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
- NASB ¶“But just ask the animals, and have them teach you; And the birds of the sky, and have them tell you.
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
Job invites his friends to ask the animals and birds, who can teach them. He appeals to creation as a witness to God's ways.
Overview
Job tells the friends that even beasts and birds know what he is about to declare concerning God's sovereign power. The appeal to nature as a teacher of God's truth echoes the wider biblical theme of creation revealing the Creator (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20). Job uses common knowledge of God's rule to rebuke his friends' supposed monopoly on wisdom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Isa 1:3The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
- 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.
- Prov 6:6Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- Job 21:29–30Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 12:7 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.