Job 31 · Verse 38

Job 31:38

If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

Job 31:38, King James Version

Job 31:38 in other translations

BSB	if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,
WEB	If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
ASV	If my land crieth out against me, And the furrows thereof weep together;
YLT	If against me my land doth cry out, And together its furrows weep,
DARBY	If my land cry out against me, and its furrows weep together;
BBE	If my land has made an outcry against me, or the ploughed earth has been in sorrow;
Webster	If my land crieth against me, or its furrows likewise complain;

What does Job 31:38 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

38. Personification. The complaints of the unjustly ousted proprietors are transferred to the lands themselves (Job 31:20; Ge 4:10; Ha 2:11). If I have unjustly acquired lands (Job 24:2; Is 5:8). furrows--The specification of these makes it likely, he implies in this, "If I paid not the laborer for tillage"; as Job 31:39, "If I paid him not for gathering in the fruits." Thus of the four clauses in Job 31:38, 39, the first refers to the same subject as the fourth, the second is connected with the third by introverted parallelism. Compare Jas 5:4, which plainly alludes to this passage: compare "Lord of Sabaoth" with Job 31:26 here.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 38 If my land cry - The most careless reader may see that the introduction of this and the two following verses here, disturbs the connection, and that they are most evidently out of their place. Job seems here to refer to that law, Lev 25:1-7, by which the Israelites were obliged to give the land rest every seventh year, that the soil might not be too much exhausted by perpetual cultivation, especially in a country which afforded so few advantages to improve the arable ground by manure. He, conscious that he had acted according to this law, states that his land could not cry out against him, nor its furrows complain. He had not broken the law, nor exhausted the soil.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 31:33-40

Job clears himself from the charge of hypocrisy. We are loth to confess our faults, willing to excuse them, and to lay the blame upon others. But he that thus covers his sins, shall not prosper, Pr 28:13. He speaks of his courage in what is good, as an evidence of his sincerity in it. When men get estates unjustly, they are justly deprived of comfort from them; it was sown wheat, but shall come up thistles. What men…

Read the full comment on Job 31:33-40 →

Job 31:38 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אִם\־'im-ifH518

עָ֭לַי'A.laion meH5921

אַדְמָתִ֣י'ad.ma.Tiland myH127

תִזְעָ֑קtiz.'Akit cried outH2199

וְ֝יַ֗חַדve.Ya.chadand togetherH3162

תְּלָמֶ֥יהָte.la.Mei.hafurrows itsH8525

יִבְכָּיֽוּן\׃yiv.ka.Yunthey wept !H1058

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 31:38

Habakkuk 2:11
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Psalms 65:13
The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
James 5:4
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
Job 20:27
The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

cry.
20:27; Hab 2:11; Jas 5:4
complain. Heb. weep.
Ps 65:13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Job 31:37
I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.
Job 31:38
If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
Job 31:39
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

Read all of Job 31

Job 31:38 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Si mi tierra clama contra mí, y lloran todos sus surcos;
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Si ma terre crie contre moi, et que ses sillons pleurent ensemble,
German Elberfelder 1871	Wenn mein Acker über mich schreit, und seine Furchen allesamt weinen;
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Si adversum me terra mea clamat, et cum ipsa sulci ejus deflent: