Job 1:14 - Exposition

And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were ploughing, and the asses (literally, the she-asses ) feeding beside them (literally, at their hand ) . Note that, notwithstanding the festival, labour was still going on; there was no general holiday; the oxen were at work in the field, not perhaps all of them, but the greater number, for the ploughing-time is short in the Oriental countries, and the "earing" is all done at the same time. The bulk of Job's labourers were probably engaged in the business, and they had brought the asses with them, probably to keep them under their eye, lest thieves should carry them off, when the catastrophe related in the next verse occurred.