Bible Strands
Job 11:12
But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Zophar addresses Job during his first response, immediately after stating that God perceives human deceit and iniquity. He deploys this analogy to counter Job’s assertions of personal integrity.
The words — נָבוּב (Na.vuv) = hollow and יִלָּבֵב (yi.la.Vev) = he will become intelligent mark the gap between innate foolishness and acquired understanding. עַיִר פְּרִיא ('ayir per'i) = wild donkey colt anchors the comparison in biological impossibility.
The thread — The imagery of the wild donkey appears in Job 39:5, which questions who loosened its bonds. The address to a fool in James 2:20 targets claims of faith without action, while Psalms 73:22 uses brute-beast language to describe the psalmist’s former ignorance.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of inherent cognitive limits and rejects the premise that wisdom can be self-generated. It requires the reader to abandon self-justification and seek understanding from the only source that perceives hidden iniquity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
Cross-references
- Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
- James 2:20 O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless?
- Psalms 73:22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.
- Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”
- Jeremiah 2:24 a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.
- James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
- Job 5:13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.
- Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass, or an ox low over its fodder?
- Job 12:2 “Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!
- Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?