Job 39:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, And gather the grain of your threshing floor?

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְֽגָרְנְךָ֥

gôren

H1637

“and · threshing floor · your”

Conjunction + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 37× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 50:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root meaning to smooth

TWOT: 383a

threshing-floor - (TWOT) barn, barn floor, corn floor, void place

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
6: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְֽגָרְנְךָ֥ threshing floor H1637 occurs in 37 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
2 nouns
1 preposition
1 conjunction

Verb forms

הֲתַאֲמִ֣ין Hiphil · Imperfect
ישוב Qal · Imperfect
יָשִׁ֣יב Hiphil · Imperfect
יֶאֱסֹֽף Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

ישוב to return H7725 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Job 39:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Nehemiah 13:15 In those days saw I in Judah some men treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading donkeys [therewith]; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified [against them] in the day in which they sold food.
Proverbs 3:16 Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.
Amos 2:13 Behold, I will crush you in your place, As a cart crushes that is full of grain.
Haggai 2:19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven't brought forth. From this day will I bless you.'"
Matthew 3:2 "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Job 39:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

הֲתַאֲמִ֣ין בּ֭וֹ כִּי ישוב יָשִׁ֣יב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ וְֽגָרְנְךָ֥ יֶאֱסֹֽף

Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, And gather the grain of your threshing floor?

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Job 39:12 Septuagint · lemma form

πιστεύω δέ ὅτι ἀποδίδωμι σύ ὁ σπόρος εἰςφέρω δέ σύ ὁ ἅλων

And will you believe that he will return to you your seed, and bring it in to your threshing floor?

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Job 39:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather [it into] thy barn?

Ver. 12. Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed] That is, the crop that comes of thy seed; as in the former verse, thy labour, that is, the fruit of thy labour, as Psa 128:2. There is no trusting to this wild and fierce creature to do any such thing. Vertoman saith, that he saw two unicorns, and that they were not of so fierce a nature but that they might be brought to somewhat. But then they were not true unicorns, say we; such as God here describeth.

And gather it into thy barn?] No trusting to the unicorn’s gentleness for any such matter, unless we desire to be deceived.

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Is it possible to make the unicorn tame? signifying that if man cannot rule a creature, that it is much more impossible that he should appoint the wisdom of God, whereby he governeth all the world.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

believe--trust.

seed--produce (Sa1 8:15).

into thy barn--rather, "gather (the contents of) thy threshing-floor" [MAURER]; the corn threshed on it.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 12. That he will bring home thy seed] Thou canst make no domestic nor agricultural use of him.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Wilt thou believe him?—i.e., trust him, as in the former verse “Wilt thou [trust” was, rather, Wilt thou feel confidence in him?

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Wilt thou believe him that he will bring home thy seed?.... Draw in the cart, and bring home the ripe sheaves of corn, as the tame ox does? no; thou knowest him too well to believe he will bring it home in safety;

and gather it into thy barn; to be trodden out, which used to be done by oxen in those times: if therefore Job could not manage such unruly creatures as the wild ass and the wild ox, and make them serviceable to him, how unfit must he be to govern the world, or to direct in the affairs of Providence?

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wilt thou believe him? - That is, wilt thou trust him with the productions of the field? The idea is, that he was an untamed and unsubdued animal. He could not be governed, like the camel or the ox. If the sheaves of the harvest were laid on him, there would be no certainty that he would convey them where the farmer wished them.

And gather it into thy barn? - Or, rather, “to thy threshing-floor,” for so the word used here (גרן gôren) means. It was not common to gather a harvest into a barn, but it was usually collected on a hard-trod place and there threshed and winnowed. For the use of the word, see Rth 3:2; Jdg 6:37; Num 18:30; Isa 21:10.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Will bring home thy seed, Heb. will return thy seed; either,

1. By ploughing and harrowing thy land so well that it shall make a good return to thee for thy seed. Or rather,

2. By bringing into thy barn, as it follows, thy seed, i.e. the product of thy seed, or thy sheaves of corn, as this word is used, Hag 2:19.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

12. Thy barn — Better, threshing floor.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Wilt thou believe him rather, Wilt thou confide in him (see the Revised Version)that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barns? i.e. convey the harvest from the field to the homestead, that it may be safely lodged in thy barn. The "strength" of the urns (ver. 11) would make all such labours light to him, but his savage nature would render it impossible to use him for them.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Job, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 8 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gôren (“threshing floor”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word gôren carries the sense “threshing floor.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 50:10 shares the word «threshing floor» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to return” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «הֲתַאֲמִ֣ין» is Hiphil Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“to return” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.