Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, August 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Job 39:11

Can you rely on his great strength and expect him to do your heavy work?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Unicorn (Wild Ox, Rsv);   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Unicorn;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Animals;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Unicorn;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Knowledge;   Nature;   Unicorn;   World;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Labor;   Wild-Ox;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Buffalo;   Unicorn;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Can you depend on it because its strength is great?Would you leave it to do your hard work?
Hebrew Names Version
Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
King James Version
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
English Standard Version
Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
New Century Version
Will you depend on the wild ox for its great strength and leave your heavy work for it to do?
New English Translation
Will you rely on it because its strength is great? Will you commit your labor to it?
Amplified Bible
"Will you trust him because his strength is great And leave your labor to him?
New American Standard Bible
"Will you trust him because his strength is great, And leave your labor to him?
World English Bible
Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wilt thou trust in him, because his stregth is great, and cast off thy labour vnto him?
Legacy Standard Bible
Will you trust him because his power is greatAnd leave your labor to him?
Berean Standard Bible
Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
Contemporary English Version
Can you depend on him to use his great strength and do your heavy work?
Complete Jewish Bible
Would you trust its great strength enough to let it do your heavy work,
Darby Translation
Wilt thou put confidence in him, because his strength is great? and wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Easy-to-Read Version
A wild bull is very strong, but can you trust him to do your work?
George Lamsa Translation
Will you have confidence in him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?
Lexham English Bible
Can you trust it because its strength is great, or will you hand your labor over to it?
Literal Translation
Will you trust him because his strength is great; or will you leave your labor to him?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Mayest thou trust hi (because he is stroge) or comitte thy labor vnto hi?
American Standard Version
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave to him thy labor?
Bible in Basic English
Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
King James Version (1611)
Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great? or wilt thou leaue thy labour to him?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Mayst thou trust him because he is strong, or commit thy labour vnto him?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And dost thou trust him, because his strength is great? and wilt thou commit thy works to him?
English Revised Version
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave to him thy labour?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether thou schalt haue trist in his grete strengthe, and schalt thou leeue to hym thi traueils?
Update Bible Version
Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?
Webster's Bible Translation
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength [is] great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him?
New King James Version
Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?
New Living Translation
Given its strength, can you trust it? Can you leave and trust the ox to do your work?
New Life Bible
Will you trust in him because he is very strong, and leave your work to him?
New Revised Standard
Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Wilt thou trust in him, because of the greatness of his strength? Wilt thou leave unto him thy toil?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wilt thou have confidence in his great strength, and leave thy labours to him?
Revised Standard Version
Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?
Young's Literal Translation
Dost thou trust in him because great [is] his power? And dost thou leave unto him thy labour?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Will you trust him because his strength is great And leave your labor to him?

Contextual Overview

1 Do you know when mountain goats are born? Have you watched wild deer give birth? 2 Do you know how long they carry their young? Do you know the time for their birth? 3 Do you know when they will crouch down and bring their young into the world? 4 In the wilds their young grow strong; they go away and don't come back. 5 Who gave the wild donkeys their freedom? Who turned them loose and let them roam? 6 I gave them the desert to be their home, and let them live on the salt plains. 7 They keep far away from the noisy cities, and no one can tame them and make them work. 8 The mountains are the pastures where they feed, where they search for anything green to eat. 9 Will a wild ox work for you? Is he willing to spend the night in your stable? 10 Can you hold one with a rope and make him plow? Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

trust: Psalms 20:7, Psalms 33:16, Psalms 33:17, Psalms 147:10, Isaiah 30:16, Isaiah 31:1-3

leave: Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:2, Genesis 42:26, Psalms 144:14, Proverbs 14:4, Isaiah 30:6, Isaiah 46:1

Reciprocal: Numbers 23:22 - the strength

Cross-References

Job 24:15
The adulterer waits for twilight to come; he covers his face so that no one can see him.
Proverbs 9:17
"Stolen water is sweeter. Stolen bread tastes better."
Jeremiah 23:24
No one can hide where I cannot see them. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth?
Malachi 3:5
The Lord Almighty says, "I will appear among you to judge, and I will testify at once against those who practice magic, against adulterers, against those who give false testimony, those who cheat employees out of their wages, and those who take advantage of widows, orphans, and foreigners—against all who do not respect me.
Ephesians 5:3
Since you are God's people, it is not right that any matters of sexual immorality or indecency or greed should even be mentioned among you.
Ephesians 5:12
(It is really too shameful even to talk about the things they do in secret.)

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wilt thou trust him, because his strength [is] great?.... No; tame oxen are employed because they are strong to labour,

Psalms 144:14; and they are to be trusted, in ploughing or treading out the corn, under direction, because they are manageable, and will attend to business with constancy; but the wild ox, though stronger, and so fitter for labour, is yet not to be trusted, because unruly and unmanageable: if that sort of wild oxen called "uri" could be thought to be meant, for which Bootius h contends, Caesar's account of them would agree with this character of the "reem", as to his great strength: he says of them i, they are in size a little smaller than elephants, of the kind, colour, and shape of a bull; they are of great strength and of great swiftness, and not to be tamed;

or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? to plough thy fields, to harrow thy lands, and to bring home the ripe corn? as in Job 39:12; thou wilt not.

h Animadvers. Sacr. l. 3. c. 1. s. 14. i Comment. de Bello Gall. l. 6. c. 27.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wilt thou trust him? - As thou dost the ox. In the domestic animals great confidence is of necessity placed, and the reliance on the fidelity of the ox and the horse is not usually misplaced. The idea here is, that the unicorn could not be so tamed that important interests could be safely entrusted to him.

Because his strength is great? - Wilt thou consider his strength as a reason why important interests might be entrusted to him? The strength of the ox, the camel, the horse, and the elephant was a reason why their aid was sought by man to do what he could not himself do. The idea is, that man could not make use of the same reason for employing the rhinoceros.

Wilt thou leave thy labour to him? - Or, rather, the avails of thy labor - the harvest.


 
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