What Does Job 39:9 Mean in the King James?
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The wild ox’s strength does not make it yours to command; even its willingness to serve lies beyond your reach.
THE MEANING
The creature called “unicorn” here is רְאֵם (reʾēm), the wild ox. It does not take your work or settle in your stall just because you have a use or a place for it. The question exposes the limit of your power over another living creature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is strong or useful exists to obey you: strength does not make a creature your possession.
THE ROOT
עָבְדֶּךָ
ʿāvdəkā
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work, labor, or serve.
The Hebrew word holds service and labor together: the question is whether this wild creature will work for you. English can make “serve” sound like mere obedience, while the root also carries the concrete idea of labor. The verse sets that proposed use beside the creature’s freedom to remain outside your command.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvaḏ: He worked or served.
עָבַד
The verb shows the work and service contained in the question.
ʿeḇeḏ: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This noun names the role the question asks whether the wild ox will take.
ʿăḇōḏāh: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבוֹדָה
This branch makes explicit the labor implied when the creature is asked to serve.
THE PATTERN
Living creatures remain beyond human management, and their lives are sustained beyond human provision.
Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The Hebrew word translated “dress” in Genesis 2:15 comes from עבד, the same root as “serve” here. The root opens a kinship between the human’s work in the garden and the service the wild ox is asked to give: both concern labor, though this verse shows that the creature’s willingness cannot be commanded.
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