Job 39:11

11 Can you depend on it because of its strength?[a] Would you leave it to do your hard work?

Job 39:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:11

Wilt thou trust him, because his strength [is] great?
&c.] No; tame oxen are employed because they are strong to labour, ( Psalms 144:14 ) ; and they are to be trusted, in ploughing or treading out the corn, under direction, because they are manageable, and will attend to business with constancy; but the wild ox, though stronger, and so fitter for labour, is yet not to be trusted, because unruly and unmanageable: if that sort of wild oxen called "uri" could be thought to be meant, for which Bootius F8 contends, Caesar's account of them would agree with this character of the "reem", as to his great strength: he says of them F9, they are in size a little smaller than elephants, of the kind, colour, and shape of a bull; they are of great strength and of great swiftness, and not to be tamed;

or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
to plough thy fields, to harrow thy lands, and to bring home the ripe corn? as in ( Job 39:12 ) ; thou wilt not.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Animadvers. Sacr. l. 3. c. 1. s. 14.
F9 Comment. de Bello Gall. l. 6. c. 27.

Job 39:11 In-Context

9 Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
10 Can you hold the wild ox by its harness to the furrow? Will it plow the valleys behind you?
11 Can you depend on it because of its strength? Would you leave it to do your hard work?
12 Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring [it] to your threshing floor?
13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork's?

Footnotes 1

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