Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, July 20th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Green's Literal Translation

Job 39:21

He paws in the valley and he rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons;

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Horse;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Beasts;   Horse, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Horses;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Animals;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Horse;   Valley;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Horse;   Transportation and Travel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Horse;   Knowledge;   Nature;   World;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Horse;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Greyhound;   Horse;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Armor;   Horse;   Paw;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Horse;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength;he charges into battle.
Hebrew Names Version
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men.
King James Version
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
English Standard Version
He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
New Century Version
It paws wildly, enjoying its strength, and charges into battle.
New English Translation
It paws the ground in the valley, exulting mightily, it goes out to meet the weapons.
Amplified Bible
"He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; He goes out to meet the weapons [of armed men].
New American Standard Bible
"He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He goes out to meet the battle.
World English Bible
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He diggeth in the valley, and reioyceth in his strength: he goeth foorth to meete the harnest man.
Legacy Standard Bible
He paws in the valley and rejoices in his power;He goes out to meet the weapons.
Berean Standard Bible
He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.
Contemporary English Version
Before horses are ridden into battle, they paw at the ground, proud of their strength.
Complete Jewish Bible
It paws with force and exults with vigor, then charges into the battle;
Darby Translation
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in [his] strength; he goeth forth to meet the armed host.
Easy-to-Read Version
A horse is happy to be so strong. It scratches the ground with its foot and runs into battle.
George Lamsa Translation
He paws in the plain, and rejoices in the valley; he goes forth armed to the battle.
Good News Translation
They eagerly paw the ground in the valley; they rush into battle with all their strength.
Lexham English Bible
They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength; it goes out to meet the battle.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
he breaketh ye grounde with the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men.
American Standard Version
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: He goeth out to meet the armed men.
Bible in Basic English
He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth out to meet the clash of arms.
King James Version (1611)
He paweth in the valley, and reioyceth in his strength: hee goeth on to meet the armed men.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He breaketh the grounde with the hooffes of his feete, he reioyceth cherefully in his strength, and runneth to meete the harnest men.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He paws exulting in the plain, and goes forth in strength into the plain.
English Revised Version
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth out to meet the armed men.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He diggith erthe with the foot, he `fulli ioieth booldli; he goith ayens armed men.
Update Bible Version
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men.
Webster's Bible Translation
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in [his] strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
New King James Version
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms.
New Living Translation
It paws the earth and rejoices in its strength when it charges out to battle.
New Life Bible
He hits his foot against the ground in the valley, and has joy in his strength. He goes out to meet the battle.
New Revised Standard
It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He diggeth into the plain, and rejoiceth in vigour, he goeth forth to meet armour;
Douay-Rheims Bible
He breaketh up the earth with his hoof, he pranceth boldly, he goeth forward to meet armed men.
Revised Standard Version
He paws in the valley, and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.
Young's Literal Translation
They dig in a valley, and he rejoiceth in power, He goeth forth to meet the armour.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He goes out to meet the weapons.

Contextual Overview

19 Have you given the horse its strength: have you clothed its neck with a mane? 20 Can you make him leap like a locust; the majesty of his snorting is terrifying? 21 He paws in the valley and he rejoices in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons; 22 he mocks at fear and is not terrified; and he does not turn back from the sword. 23 The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. 24 He swallows the ground with quivering and trembling, and he does not stand still for the sound of the ram's horn. 25 When the ram's horn sounds , he says, Aha! And he smells the battle from a distance, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

He paweth: or, His feet dig, Judges 5:22

and: 1 Samuel 17:4-10, 1 Samuel 17:42, Psalms 19:5, Jeremiah 9:23

he goeth: Proverbs 21:31, Jeremiah 8:6

armed men: Heb. armour

Reciprocal: Job 41:26 - The sword

Cross-References

Genesis 21:22
And it happened at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the general of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do.
Genesis 39:2
And Jehovah was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of the Egyptian, his master.
Genesis 39:9
No one in this house is greater than I, and he has not withheld anything from me except you, because you are his wife. And how should I do this great evil and sin against God?
Genesis 39:10
And it happened, as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her, to lie beside her, to be with her.
Genesis 39:13
And it happened, when she saw that he had left his robe in her hand, and had fled outside,
Genesis 39:14
she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, Behold! He has brought to us a Hebrew man in to sport with us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
Genesis 39:16
And she kept his robe beside her until the coming of his master to his house.
Genesis 39:23
There was no looking of the warden of the prison house to anything in his hand, in that Jehovah was with him, and Jehovah was prospering what he was doing.
Genesis 40:3
And he gave them into custody, in the house of the chief of the executioners, into the prison house, the place where Joseph was bound.
Exodus 3:21
And I will give this people favor in the eyes of Egypt; and it will come to pass, when you go, you will not go empty.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He paweth in the valley,.... Where armies are usually pitched and set in battle army, and especially the cavalry, for which the valley is most convenient; and here the horse is impatient of engaging, cannot stand still, but rises up with his fore feet and paws and prances, and, as the word signifies, digs the earth and makes it hollow, by a continual striking upon it; so generally horses are commonly described in this manner s;

and rejoiceth in [his] strength; of which he is sensible, and glories in it; marches to the battle with pride and stateliness, defying, as it were, the enemy, and as if sure of victory, of which he has knowledge when obtained; for Lactantius says t of horses, when conquerors they exult, when conquered they grieve; it has its name in the Hebrew language from rejoicing u;

he goeth on to meet the armed men; without any fear or dread of them, as follows.

s "Cavatque tellurem". Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 87. t Institut. l. 3. c. 8. u שוש "gavisus est". Vid. Buxtorf. in voce סוס.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He paweth in the valley - Margin, “or, His feet dig.” The marginal reading is more in accordance with the Hebrew. The reference is to the well known fact of the “pawing” of the horse with his feet, as if he would dig up the ground. The same idea occurs in Virgil, as quoted above:

caavatque

Tellurem, et solido graviter solar ungula cornu.

Also in Apollonius, L. iii. “Argonauticon:”

Ὡς δ ̓ ἀρήΐος ἵππος, ἐελδόμενος πολεμοίο,

Σκαρθμῷ ἐπιχρεμέθων κρούει πέδον.

Hōs d' arēios hippos, eeldomenos polemoio,

Skarthmō epichremethōn krouei pedon.

“As a war-horse, impatient for the battle,

Neighing beats the ground with bis hoofs”

He goeth on to meet the armed men - Margin, “armor.” The margin is in accordance with the Hebrew, but still the idea is substantially the same. The horse rushes on furiously against the weapons of war.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 39:21. He paweth in the valley — רעם yachperu, "they dig in the valley," i.e., in his violent galloping, in every pitch of his body, he scoops up sods out of the earth. Virgil has seized this idea also, in his cavat tellurem; "he scoops out the ground." See before.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile