Bible Strands
Job 39:9
Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Job from the whirlwind, continuing a sequence of rhetorical questions about untamed animals to contrast divine sovereignty with human limitation.
The words — The Hebrew יֹאבֶה (yo'beh) translates literally as "is it willing" or "will it consent," paired with רֵים (reim), meaning "a wild ox," to highlight the creature's inherent refusal to be domesticated.
The thread — The wild ox appears in Numbers 23:22, Deuteronomy 33:17, and Psalms 92:10, where the text consistently uses the animal to symbolize raw strength, majesty, or exalted honor rather than untamable power.
Why it lands — The verse states that human authority cannot compel the natural order, which directly confronts the reader with the limits of human control and the necessity of submitting to divine wisdom.
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
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Cross-references
- Numbers 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
- Deuteronomy 33:17 His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Psalms 92:10 But You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; with fine oil I have been anointed.
- Psalms 22:21 Save me from the mouth of the lion; at the horns of the wild oxen You have answered me!
- Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”