Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never 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.
- BSB Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.
- NKJV Their bull breeds without failure; Their cow calves without miscarriage.
- NASB “His ox mates without fail; His cow calves and does not 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 one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
- Deut 28:11Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.
- Deut 7:13–14He will love you, bless you, multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
- Luke 16:19“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
- Eccl 9:1–2For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
- Luke 12:16–21He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly.
- Ps 144:13–14Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten 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.