Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?
- KJV Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
- NKJV Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?
- NASB “Will you have faith in him that he will return your grain And gather it from your threshing floor?
- NLT Can you rely on it to bring home your grain and deliver it to your threshing floor?
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
Can Job count on the wild ox to bring in his harvest and gather grain to the threshing floor? It will do no such thing.
Overview
The LORD asks if Job can rely on the wild ox to reap and haul his crops. The untamable beast offers no such help. The closing question of this section drives home how little of creation answers to human command, while all of it answers to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Hag 2:19Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”
- Amos 2:13Behold, I am about to crush you in your place as with a cart full of grain.
- Neh 13:15In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.
- Matt 13:30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
- Matt 3:2and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
- Prov 3:16Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 39:12 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.