Bible Strands
Job 39:11
Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Job in a rhetorical discourse about wild animals, specifically questioning his ability to direct the power of a draft beast. The words — The Hebrew תִבְטַח (tivtach) translates "will you trust," and יְגִיעֶךָ (yegi'ekha) means "your toil," forming a direct challenge about delegating heavy labor. The thread — Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, and Genesis 9:2 record God granting humans authority over living creatures. Interpreters link this to Job 39:11 to contrast God's sovereign creation of untamed beasts with the limited human capacity to harness them. Why it lands — The text asks whether a person can actually command or depend upon the raw power of an animal to complete agricultural work.
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
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Cross-references
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
- Genesis 9:2 The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.
- Genesis 42:26 and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.
- Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
- Psalms 33:16 No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- Psalms 144:14 Our oxen will bear great loads. There will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of lament in our streets.
- Psalms 147:10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Proverbs 14:4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox.
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.