Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?
- KJV Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
- NKJV “Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?
- NASB “Will the wild bull be willing to serve you, Or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
- NLT “Will the wild ox consent to being tamed? Will it spend the night in your stall?
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 the wild ox agree to serve Job or stay by his feeding trough? Its strength cannot be bent to human will.
Overview
God asks whether the powerful wild ox will submit to domestication. The implied answer is no, for it belongs to God's untamed world. This begins a contrast between creatures Job cannot master and the God who governs them effortlessly.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Num 23:22God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
- Ps 92:10But You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; with fine oil I have been anointed.
- Deut 33:17His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Ps 22:21Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!
- Isa 1:3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
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 39:9 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.