“Have you given the horse its strength or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
- KJV Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
- BSB Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?
- NKJV “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder?
- NASB ¶“Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?
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
God asks whether Job gave the horse its strength and majestic mane, pressing home that Job creates nothing. The war-horse's power testifies to its Maker, not to man.
Overview
Turning to the war-horse, God begins a vivid portrait of one of the noblest of domesticated animals. The rhetorical questions expose that Job neither made the horse nor endowed it with might. As with every creature in the speech, the horse's strength points beyond itself to the God who fashioned it, summoning Job to humility before the Lord of all life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 93:1Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved.
- Ps 147:10He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Ps 104:1Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.
- Mark 3:17James the son of Zebedee; John, the brother of James, and he called them Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder;
- Exod 15:1Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
- Job 39:25As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
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 39:19 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.