Job 39:11

11 Can you rely on his great strength and expect him to do your heavy 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 Will a wild ox work for you? Is he willing to spend the night in your stable?
10 Can you hold one with a rope and make him plow? Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?
11 Can you rely on his great strength and expect him to do your heavy work?
12 Do you expect him to bring in your harvest and gather the grain from your threshing place?
13 How fast the wings of an ostrich beat! But no ostrich can fly like a stork.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.