Bible Strands
Job 39:10
Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Job with a series of rhetorical questions about untamable animals to demonstrate human limitation against divine power.
The words — The verse centers on `תִקְשָׁר` (tikshor), meaning "will you bind," and `רֵים` (reim), the "wild ox," describing an animal that refuses to be yoked to agricultural labor.
The thread — The theme of rejected harnessing runs through Job 39:5 and Job 39:7, where the wild donkey scorns control, while Job 1:14 shows ordinary oxen plowing to mark the boundary between domesticated and wild creatures.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that wild strength cannot be forced into human service, placing the burden of humility on the reader rather than offering explanation or comfort.
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
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Cross-references
- Job 1:14 a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
- Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
- Job 39:7 He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.
- Job 41:5 Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?
- Psalms 129:3 The plowmen plowed over my back; they made their furrows long.
- Hosea 10:10 I will chasten them when I please; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double transgression.
- Micah 1:13 Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.