Lectionary Calendar
Monday, July 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Job 12:8

ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom.

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.
Complete Jewish Bible
or speak to the earth — it will teach you — and the fish in the sea will inform you:
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.
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 But thieves and godless people live in peace, though their only god is their own strength. 7 Even birds and animals have much they could teach you; 8 ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom. 9 All of them know that the Lord 's hand made them. 10 It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone's life is in his power. 11 But just as your tongue enjoys tasting food, your ears enjoy hearing words.

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
Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord 's holy name in worship.
Genesis 12:12
When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.
Genesis 12:14
When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful.
Genesis 12:15
Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace.
Genesis 12:16
Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.
Genesis 13:4
and had built an altar. There he worshiped the Lord .
Genesis 21:33
Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the Lord , the Everlasting God.
Genesis 28:19
He named the place Bethel. (The town there was once known as Luz.)
Genesis 35:3
We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."
Joshua 7:2
Joshua sent some men from Jericho to Ai, a city east of Bethel, near Bethaven, with orders to go and explore the land. When they had done so,

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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