Job 39:11

11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor 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.

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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? Will it spend the night at your crib?

10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you?

11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it?

12 Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?

13 "The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage.