“Will the wild ox consent to being tamed? Will it spend the night in your stall?
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?
- BSB Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?
- 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?
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 brings them out of Egypt. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
- Ps 92:10But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil.
- Deut 33:17The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push all the peoples, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Ps 22:21Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, you have answered me.
- Isa 1:3The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
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 39:9 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.