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Saturday, July 26th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Job 12:8

or speak to the earth — it will teach you — and the fish in the sea will inform you:

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Animals;   Atheism;   Design;   Geology;   God;   Philosophy;   Religion;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fishes;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ant;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   Proverbs, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fish;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Job;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you;let the fish of the sea inform you.
Hebrew Names Version
Or speak to the eretz, and it shall teach you; The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
King James Version
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
English Standard Version
or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
New Century Version
Speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea tell you.
New English Translation
Or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Amplified Bible
Or speak to the earth [with its many forms of life], and it will teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare [this truth] to you.
New American Standard Bible
"Or speak to the earth, and have it teach you; And have the fish of the sea tell you.
World English Bible
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Or speake to the earth, and it shall shewe thee: or the fishes of the sea, and they shall declare vnto thee.
Legacy Standard Bible
Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you;And let the fish of the sea recount it to you.
Berean Standard Bible
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; let the fish of the sea inform you.
Contemporary English Version
the flowers and the fish.
Darby Translation
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Easy-to-Read Version
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. Or let the fish in the sea tell you their wisdom.
George Lamsa Translation
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; and the fishes of the sea shall declare to you.
Good News Translation
ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom.
Lexham English Bible
or ask the earth, and it will teach you, and the fishes of the sea will declare to you.
Literal Translation
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will recount to you;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Speake to the earth, and it shall shewe the: Or to the fyshes of the see, and they shal certifie the.
American Standard Version
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Bible in Basic English
Or to the things which go flat on the earth, and they will give you wisdom; and the fishes of the sea will give you news of it.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee;
King James Version (1611)
Or speake to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare vnto thee.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Or the encrease of the earth, and it shall shew thee: or the fishes of the sea, and they shall certifie thee.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Tell the earth, if it may speak to thee: and the fishes of the sea shall explain to thee.
English Revised Version
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Speke thou to the erthe, and it schal answere thee; and the fischis of the see schulen telle tho thingis.
Update Bible Version
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; And the fish of the sea shall declare to you.
Webster's Bible Translation
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare to thee.
New King James Version
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
New Living Translation
Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you.
New Life Bible
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you. Let the fish of the sea make it known to you.
New Revised Standard
ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or address the earth, and it will teach thee, and the fishes of the sea, will recount it to thee:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall tell.
Revised Standard Version
or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Young's Literal Translation
Or talk to the earth, and it sheweth thee, And fishes of the sea recount to thee:
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you.

Contextual Overview

6 The tents of robbers prosper, [the homes of] those who anger God are secure, those who carry their gods in their hands. 7 "But ask the animals — they will teach you — and the birds in the air — they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth — it will teach you — and the fish in the sea will inform you: 9 every one of them knows that the hand of Adonai has done this! 10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the spirit of every human being. 11 Shouldn't the ear test words, just as the palate tastes food?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Genesis 1:25 - General Job 8:10 - Shall not Job 18:3 - Wherefore Proverbs 6:6 - the ant

Cross-References

Genesis 4:26
To Shet too was born a son, whom he called Enosh. That is when people began to call on the name of Adonai .
Genesis 12:12
so that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,' and kill me but keep you alive.
Genesis 12:14
(ii) When Avram entered Egypt, the Egyptians did notice that the woman was very beautiful.
Genesis 12:15
Pharaoh's princes saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
Genesis 12:16
He treated Avram well for her sake, giving him sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.
Genesis 13:4
where he had first built the altar; and there Avram called on the name of Adonai .
Genesis 21:33
Avraham planted a tamarisk tree in Be'er-Sheva, and there he called on the name of Adonai , the everlasting God.
Genesis 28:19
and named the place Beit-El [house of God]; but the town had originally been called Luz.
Genesis 35:3
We're going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went."
Joshua 7:2
Y'hoshua sent men from Yericho to ‘Ai, which is next to Beit-Aven, east of Beit-El, telling them to go up and spy out the land. So the men went up, reconnoitered ‘Ai,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee,.... Or ask "a sprig of the earth" n, any shrub, or tree, or whatsoever grows out of it, and they will all unite in this doctrine, that they are raised and preserved by the power of God, and are so many instances of his wisdom, power, and goodness:

and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee; as mute as they are, they will proclaim this truth, that God is the mighty Maker and wise Disposer of them.

n שיח לארץ "virgultum terrae", Pagninus, Schmidt; so Drusius and Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee - Perhaps this appeal to the earth may mean, as Stuhlman supposes, that the same thing is shown in the productions of the earth, as in the case of fierce animals. Noxious weeds and useless plants are more thrifty than the plants which are useful and the growth of poisonous or annoying things on the earth illustrates the same thing as the dealings of God with people - that his dealings are not in accordance with the real nature of objects.

And the fishes of the sea - The same thing is manifested in the sea, where the mighty prey upon the feeble, and the fierce and the ferocious overcome the defenseless. The sentiment is that it is a great principle which pervades all things that the ferocious the strong, the wicked, are often prospered, while the weak, the defenseless, the innocent, the pious, are subject to calamities, and that God does not apportion his dealings to the exact character of his creatures. Undoubtedly Job was right in this. and this general principle might be seen then as now, to pervade the world.


 
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