Where no oxen [are], the crib [is] clean: but much increase [is] by the strength of the ox.
Ver. 4. Where no oxen are, the crib is clean.] The barn and garners are empty. Neque mola, neque farina; no good to be got without hard labour of men and cattle. Let the idle man's motto be that of the lily, neque laborant, neque nent: "They neither toil nor spin." Mat 6:28 Man is born to toil, as the sparks fly upwards. Job 5:7 And spinster they say is a term given the greatest women in our law. Our lives are called "the lives of our hands," Isa 57:10 because to be maintained by the labour of our hands.
But much increase is by the strength of the ox.] This is one of those beasts that serve ad esum et ad usum, and are profitable both alive and dead. A heathen counselleth good husbands and husbandmens that would thrive in the world to get first a house, then a wife, and then an ox that lustily plougheth and bringeth in much increase. Bede applies this text to painful preachers, set forth by oxen, 1Co 9:9 Rev 4:7 for their tolerance and tugging at the work; where these labour lustily there is commonly a harvest of holiness, a crop of comfort. Only they must be dustily diligent. a
a Dιακονος, of κονις, dust.