Job 39:11

11 Can you trust it because its strength [is] great, or will you hand your labor over to it?

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 "Is [the] wild ox willing to serve you, or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
10 Can you tie [the] wild ox [with] its rope to a furrow, or will it harrow [the] valleys after you?
11 Can you trust it because its strength [is] great, or will you hand your labor over to it?
12 Can you rely on it that it will return your grain and [that] it will gather [it] to your threshing floor?
13 "[The] wings of [the] female ostrich flap-- [are they] [the] pinions of [the] stork or [the] falcon?
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