that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

  • KJV King James Version

    And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    that there came a messenger unto Job, and said: 'The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them;

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Cross-references (3)

Passages linked to Job 1:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • 1 Samuel 4:17 He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.”
  • Jeremiah 51:31 One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
  • 2 Samuel 15:13 A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (11 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 1:14 And there came a messenger unto Job,…

Job 1:14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

Ver. 14. And there came a messenger] A sad relater, not a devil in the shape of a man, as the Rabbis would have it (let that pass for a Jewish fable), but one of Job’s own servants, or some other eye witness, to make Job believe, belike, that, as an evil man, he only sought rebellion, since such cruel messengers were sent against him, Pro 17:11.

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The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding, &c.] i.e. We were none of us either idle, or ill-occupied; but taking pains, and tending our cattle, when this disaster befell us. "Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted," Psa 107:17; they create themselves crosses, such as must therefore needs come with a sting in them, see Gen 42:21. But Job’s servants were honestly employed when plundered and assassinated; which showeth that his losses were not penal, but probational.

And the asses feeding beside them] Peter Martyr, upon the First of Samuel, wittily applieth this text to prelates and non-residents; who, when put in mind of their duty, would usually answer, that they had substitutes and curates to do their business for them, Ita labor aliorum est, et proventus ipsorum; so that others took the pains, and they the profit, saith he, and as it is in the Book of Job, The oxen plow, and the asses feed beside them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain i.e. Beside the oxen, therefore both were taken away…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And there came a messenger unto Job,.... Not a…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Messenger, &c. - One messenger immediately followed another; Satan…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. The asses feeding beside them] אתנות athonoth,…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 1:14-15. And the asses feeding beside them —…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And there came a messenger unto Job - Hebrew…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the asses feeding beside them--Hebrew, "she asses." A graphic…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. A messenger — In each of the four…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14, 15. The first stroke, the loss of the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And there came a messenger unto Job, and said,…

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