“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?
English Standard Version (ESV)
God asks if this mighty, untamable creature, the wild ox, can be broken to harness like a domestic animal. The crucial point isn't just its strength, but that its inherent wildness makes it fundamentally unsuitable for human service, unlike the docile ox.
“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?
English Standard Version (ESV)
Job is being challenged by God to consider the vastness and power of creation, specifically contrasting wild animals with those humans can tame. Following a description of the powerful and independent wild ass, God now turns to a formidable wild ox (often translated as "unicorn" but likely referring to a powerful wild bull or buffalo). The questions here emphasize its untamable nature, highlighting that its strength and wild spirit make it entirely unsuitable for human service, unlike the domesticated ox.
Imagine trying to harness the power of a charging bull, but a thousand times stronger. That's the kind of creature God is talking about here.
The original Hebrew word translated as 'wild ox' or 'unicorn' (re'em) refers to a creature of immense power and wildness. It's not like the domestic ox that humans can train and use for farming or transport.
When you look at the untamed wild ox, what does it reveal about your own ability to manage the world?
God uses the example of the wild ox to challenge Job's understanding of leadership and control. Job has been questioning God's governance of the world, but God points to a creature that Job has no power over.
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Understand the original words
re'em · Hebrew Noun
A strong animal of the bovine family, known for its immense, untamable strength and ferocity, used by God in Job as a symbol of forces beyond human control.
telam · Hebrew Noun
A deep trench cut into the earth by a plow; biblically, it symbolizes the preparation of the ground for sowing or the concept of structured labor and cultivation.
sadad · Hebrew Verb
An agricultural process of breaking up plowed ground with a heavy frame to level it or cover seeds; it represents the intensive, orderly subjection of land to human will.
This psalm likens God's deliverance to being rescued from the 'mouth of the lion' and the 'horns of the wild oxen,' emphasizing the immense power and wildness of such creatures that only God can overcome.
Isaiah 34:6-7This prophetic passage describes God's judgment on Edom, mentioning wild oxen and bulls being sacrificed, illustrating their fierce strength and untamable nature, similar to the creature in Job.
Deuteronomy 33:17Moses blesses Joseph, comparing his strength and might to the 'horns of a wild ox' (or 'reem'), highlighting the power and dominance associated with this formidable animal.
Job 39:11This verse immediately follows the one in question, directly stating the wild ox's incredible strength, reinforcing why it's impossible for humans to command or tame it.
jfbJob 39:9: "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?"
- unicorn—Pliny [Natural History, 8.21], mentions such an animal; its figure is found depicted in the ruins of Persepolis. The Hebrew reem conveys the idea of loftiness and power (compare Ramah; Indian, Ram; Latin, Roma). The rhinoceros was perhaps the original type of the unicorn. The Arab rim is a two-horned animal. Sometimes "unicorn" or reem is a mere poetical symbol or abstraction; but the buffalo is the animal r…
pooleJob 39:9: "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?"
It is much disputed among the learned, but is not needful to be known by others, whether there be or ever was such a creature as we call the unicorn; or whether this reem , which is the Hebrew name of it, be the rhinoceros , as some would have it; or a certain kind of wild goat, called oryx , which is very tall, and strong, and untractable; or one of that kind of wild oxen or bulls called uri ; which may seem most prob…
God asks if this mighty, untamable creature, the wild ox, can be broken to harness like a domestic animal. The crucial point isn't just its strength, but that its inherent wildness makes it fundamentally unsuitable for human service, unlike the docile ox.
Job is being challenged by God to consider the vastness and power of creation, specifically contrasting wild animals with those humans can tame. Following a description of the powerful and independent wild ass, God now turns to a formidable wild ox (often translated as "unicorn" but likely referring to a powerful wild bull or buffalo). The questions here emphasize its untamable nature, highlighting that its strength and wild spirit make it entirely unsuitable for human service, unlike the domesticated ox.
Job is being challenged by God to consider the vastness and power of creation, specifically contrasting wild animals with those humans can tame. Following a description of the powerful and independent wild ass, God now turns to a formidable wild ox (often translated as "unicorn" but likely referring to a powerful wild bull or buffalo). The questions here emphasize its untamable nature, highlighting that its strength and wild spirit make it entirely unsuitable for human service, unlike the domesticated ox.
"“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?" — God asks if this mighty, untamable creature, the wild ox, can be broken to harness like a domestic animal. The crucial point isn't just its strength, but that its inherent wildness makes it fundament…
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Last reviewed October 2026