Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
Parallel translations
- KJV Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
- BSB Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox.
- NKJV Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
- NASB Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean; But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.
- NLT Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.
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
Without oxen the stall stays clean, but it is the ox's strength that brings a great harvest. Productivity requires accepting some mess and effort.
Overview
This earthy proverb observes that an empty stable is tidy but unproductive, while the labor of oxen, though it brings mess, yields abundant increase. It commends industrious effort over a sterile ease that avoids both work and reward. The principle gently rebukes laziness and values fruitful labor under God's blessing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- 1 Cor 9:9–11For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,
- Prov 13:23An abundance of food is in poor people’s fields, but injustice sweeps it away.
- Amos 4:6“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 14:4 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
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