Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
- KJV Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
- NKJV Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?
- NASB “Will you trust him because his strength is great, And leave your labor to him?
- NLT Given its strength, can you trust it? Can you leave and trust the ox to do your work?
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
Will Job trust the wild ox's great strength or hand over his heavy labor to it? Such reliance would be foolish.
Overview
God asks whether Job would depend on the wild ox's power to do his work. The animal cannot be trusted to serve human ends. The point is that Job controls neither this creature nor the vast world it represents, all of which God upholds.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Gen 1:28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
- Ps 20:7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
- Ps 144:14Our oxen will bear great loads. There will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of lament in our streets.
- Prov 14:4Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox.
- Gen 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Gen 42:26and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.
- Isa 30:6This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
- Gen 9:2The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.
- Isa 31:1–3Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.
- Isa 30:16“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.
- Ps 33:16–17No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- Ps 147:10He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legpower of the man.
- Isa 46:1Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
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 39:11 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.