It’s time to play, a game: “King James Version or Shakespeare.”
Without peaking, is this verse from the Bible or other literature?
‘Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?’
If you answered Shakespeare…
…you would be wrong.
This is Job 39:9 from the King James Version.
This is one of the reasons I and others would recommend using even the New King James version (NKJV) to the KJV. King James did not have the kind of access we do today to the scholarship and the most ancient manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls for example. For that reason and others, when it comes to ancient copies of Scripture, older is better, but the same is not true for modern translations of those Scriptures. We have access to more ancient scrolls today. Bible versions like the ESV, CSB, or NIV keep these older copies in and additional scholarship in mind.
Despite that, the KJV continues to be by far the most popular English Bible used today (according to a quick Google search)! Maybe that’s due in part because they are sold at the Dollar Store or given out for free. And that’s great! But the “re’em” (Hebrew) or “monoceros” (Greek) translated “unicorn” in the KJV likely refers to a large extinct animal, perhaps the wild bull, wild ox, or Siberian unicorn, or even, as some have speculated, the rhinoceros.
Since the KJV was all that God’s people had as God’s Word in English for years, and continues to be what people read today, I believe God accomplished his purpose even in a verse mentioning the mythical unicorn since the point is the same, right? Only God is powerful enough to be able to, for example, tell Jonah’s fish to swallow Jonah, or tame such an elusive animal, too massive (Dinosaur? Narwhal?) or mythical or extinct or otherwise. Whatever does exist, God has made. God can control all animals and He does control them. All the animals of the world are doing what they’ve been told. We could learn a lot about what it means to obey God’s commands by observing how even unreasoning animals do what they do instinctively (Jude 10) as they were designed to do, and compare that with how we fail to do what we’ve been designed to do (namely worship our creator) despite that we do have understanding. Thankfully we are not without hope. Jesus paid for the sins of all who turn and believe in Him for his righteousness. Only God has perfect power and understanding. For that we can only stand in awe, speechless. Like Job we say, ““Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.”( Job 40:4)
Adorn the Gospel 