Verse Lens · Context pointer

Job 1:14 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

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

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Role in This Section

Job 1:14 advances the thought unit with the words “And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside….” The prose narrator develops the next stated step through “And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside…” as part of Four Messengers Announce Catastrophic Loss.

Read It With

  • Job 1:13–1:19

Read Job 1:14 with 1:13–1:19. Read alone, “And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside…” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: In one compressed sequence, raiding, fire, and wind destroy livestock, servants, and all ten children while a lone messenger survives each blow.

Why It Needs Context

Job 1:14 depends on 1:13–1:19; isolating “And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside…” would detach a poetic premise, image, response, or transition from The prose narrator and “Four Messengers Announce Catastrophic Loss.”

Read Job 1:13–19 together

Why these verses belong together: Job 1:13–1:19 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained prose scene: “Four Messengers Announce Catastrophic Loss.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.

Verse 13. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

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

Verse 15. And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Verse 16. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Verse 17. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Verse 18. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

Verse 19. And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Job 1:13–1:19 — Four Messengers Announce Catastrophic Loss
Sources used for this context pointer

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.

Exact location: Job 1:13–1:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 1:13–1:19

Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗
Open the complete thought-unit research record
Open a verse without taking it out of context.

Try Job 28:28, Book of Job 28:28, or Jb 28:28.

Choose book, chapter, and verse