Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
- KJV Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
- NKJV Their bull breeds without failure; Their cow calves without miscarriage.
- NASB “His ox mates without fail; His cow calves and does not miscarry.
- NLT Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
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 the livestock of the wicked prosper, breeding reliably without loss. Job uses agricultural fruitfulness as a sign of their unbroken good fortune.
Overview
In a pastoral economy, fertile herds meant wealth and stability. Job observes that the wicked enjoy this abundance, contradicting the expectation that God curses their increase. The verse underscores Job's empirical case: prosperity and righteousness do not always align in this life, a truth that drives the believer to trust God's eternal justice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Exod 23:26No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.
- Deut 28:11The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
- Deut 7:13–14He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
- Luke 16:19Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
- Eccl 9:1–2So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.
- Luke 12:16–21Then He told them a parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.
- Ps 144:13–14Our storehouses will be full, supplying all manner of produce; our flocks will bring forth thousands, tens of thousands in our fields.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 21:10 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.