For she leaveth her eggs to the earth, and warmeth them in the dust,
The ostrich is one exhibit in a long parade of creatures God sets before Job, a suffering man who wanted answers. She buries her eggs in the dust and walks away. Why would the Creator make a mother like that?
One commentator describes a bird that does the opposite of what nesting birds do:
The ostrich is another most interesting creature of God — a bird, but not a flying bird, using its wings only to help it run at a fast rate. Also, unlike other birds, she makes no comfortable nest to lay her eggs in and hide them from predators. She leaves them in the ground and warms them in the dust, in places where animals or people may walk. She does not consider the danger: these eggs break easily.
The verse begins with "For," tying it to the wing mentioned just before. Translations of that earlier line differ, and commentators read it as a contrast between two birds:
There is nothing here about peacocks at all. It is a mistake. It should read, "The wing of the ostrich waves joyously; is it the pinion and plumage of the stork?" The first part of the verse is about the ostrich, and the second part about the stork. The ostrich, with its great fluttering and its stupid indifference to its young, stands in contrast to the stork. The stork is the most affectionate bird that God created. No bird has such great care for its offspring.
The same writer says where that difference comes from:
And who is to dispute with God? The God who gives one bird its remarkable character of affection takes the commonest sense away from another bird of immense power and great swiftness. An ostrich could outrun a racehorse for a while.
Critics have long said the description is inaccurate. Commentators differ on how much of the bird's behaviour is real neglect and how much observers misread. One note explains the bird's name and records what watchers have found:
In the previous verse the ostrich is named by a word that means "a crying or wailing." The ostrich leaves its eggs in the sand, well covered up. The sun keeps them warm by day, and the parent sits upon them at night. The bird leaves other eggs unprotected nearby, to feed the young birds when they hatch, and these may be trampled on. As for the parents' indifference to their young, people say that when a hunter comes near, the birds leave their nests and often cannot find the place again in the wide desert. But dead jackals have been found near the nests, killed by the parent birds.
Another writer answers the critics by asking who is speaking here:
It would be amusing, if it were not so sad, when critics declare that the author of "the poem" made a mistake about the eggs of the ostrich. But it is not an "author" who speaks. It is the Creator Himself, and He knows more about His creatures than all the "scientists" in the world.
The eggs left in the dust are not left unwatched. One commentator puts the point as a question:
All things, however wild and seemingly senseless, are His creatures, and He does not forget them. Here is a creature that God Himself seems to have deprived of the ordinary mother's instincts. Yet some One — Who? — cares for the helpless brood.
Job had been arguing with God's handling of his life. The ostrich is a creature man cannot account for. One writer draws the response that fits:
As to the ostrich, let its wing speed ever so joyously, God is still sovereign here, whatever man may reason… But this is not without God, who takes in more than man can grasp. Let man then mark, learn, and worship, and not set up to judge God or to murmur.
The whole tour of wild creatures is building to one point about Job himself:
It is significant that the series opens and closes with mention of beasts and birds of prey. They might seem worthless, or even harmful, and yet He cares for them with unerring wisdom. Shall He fail to watch over His child who knows and trusts Him?
- Contrast. The stork guards its young. The ostrich leaves hers in the dust. The difference is God's doing, not the birds'.
- Sovereignty. God gave one bird tender care. He withheld ordinary sense from another. He gives no reasons.
- Care. The eggs lie unguarded, yet they hatch. Someone is watching over a brood their own mother forgot.
- Worship. The honest response to a creature you cannot explain is to mark, learn, and worship, not to argue with the One who made it.
- Comfort. If God cares even for creatures that look worthless, the child who trusts Him will not be the one He overlooks.
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the beast of the field may trample them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers; her labour is in vain, without her concern.
God answers Job by pointing him to the ostrich. She leaves her eggs in the sand and treats her chicks as if they were not hers — and the verse asks what such a bird says about the God who made her.
The ostrich breaks the pattern we see in almost every other mother. One commentator ties her harshness and its cause into a single lesson for Job:
She also treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers (v.16). How unlike most mother birds or animals! Why is this so? "Because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with understanding" (v.17). Sad to say, some human mothers act like the ostrich in this matter, but it is abnormal. But Job was to learn from the ostrich that God does not do what man might naturally expect. He does not need to give us His reasons.
God does not show Job the ostrich on her own. He sets her beside a bird that loves its young:
The ostrich, on the contrary, leaves its young to get through as best they can. She leaves her eggs out in the sand, to come to maturity there or to be destroyed. She does not care about them... And who is to dispute with God? God gives one bird its remarkable character of affection. From another bird He takes away the commonest sense — a bird of immense power and great swiftness, able to outrun a racehorse for a while.
Two birds, one Maker, opposite natures.
Readers differ over what this verse describes. Reports about the bird itself add to the puzzle:
The passage speaks of the ostrich leaving her eggs unprotected and hardening herself against her young. The ostrich leaves its eggs in the sand, well covered up. The sun keeps them warm by day, and the parent sits on them at night. She leaves other eggs unprotected nearby as food for the chicks when they hatch, and these may get trampled. As to the indifference of the parents to their young, reports say that when a hunter approaches, they leave their nests. Often they cannot find the place again in the wide desert. Yet people have found dead jackals near the nests, killed by the parent birds. Some suppose that Job 39:16 refers to other birds laying eggs in the ostrich's nest, so that the chicks which hatch are "not hers."
The mother does not care for her chicks. Yet they live, and that raises a question:
All things, however wild and senseless they seem, are His creatures, and He does not forget them... Here is a creature God Himself seems to have deprived of the ordinary mother's instincts. Yet some One — Who? — cares for the helpless brood.
Scripture later uses this bird as the lowest measure of human cruelty. When Jerusalem fell, the prophet compared its mothers to her:
No wonder the Chaldean enemy was bitter in reproach and cruel in punishment. But, sad to say, the chosen nation's cup of indignity was not full until they themselves turned the most bitter of all against their own kin, out of sheer want and misery. "Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness."
God never explains the ostrich to Job. One writer names the response that fits:
But this is not without God. He takes in more than man can grasp, and it pleases Him, of His own will and wisdom, to deprive the ostrich of wisdom. Yet He has also given her a swiftness that mocks the swiftest horse with its rider. Let man then mark, learn, and worship, and not set himself up to judge God or to murmur. That would be folly more guilty than the desert racer's, as well as irreverence and rebellion.
- Made so. Her hardness toward her young is no accident. God withheld wisdom from her by His own choice.
- Not explained. God tells Job what He did, never why. He "does not do what man might naturally expect," and owes us no reasons.
- Not uniform. The same Maker gave one bird remarkable affection and gave this one none. He gave her speed instead, enough to outrun a racehorse.
- Not forgotten. Though the mother fails, the brood survives; someone still feeds what no parent guards.
- Not ours to judge. The right answer to a creature we cannot explain is worship, not complaint.
For +God hath deprived her of wisdom, and hath not furnished her with understanding.
God questions Job about the ostrich for six verses, and this line explains why she acts as she does. Why would God leave one of His own creatures without wisdom, and what was a suffering man meant to learn from it?
Older English Bibles read "peacocks" in verse 13. The Hebrew points to the ostrich instead, and sets her beside the stork:
The word notsah means "plumage," and it is translated ostrich in Job 39:13-18. But Job 39:13 calls the ostrich renanim, a plural word meaning "a crying or wailing." The King James Version translates it "peacocks." The passage is obscure. Job 39:13 may be better translated: "The wing of the ostrich beats joyously: but is it the stork's pinion and plumage?" The passage then speaks of the ostrich leaving its eggs unprotected, and being hard toward its young.
Why does she act this way? The verse gives the reason, and the wording varies between translations: some say God "deprived her of wisdom," the ESV says He "made her forget wisdom."
Also, she treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers (v.16). How unlike most mother birds or animals! Why is this so? "Because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with understanding" (v.17). Sad to say, some human mothers act like the ostrich in this matter, but it is abnormal. But Job was to learn from the ostrich that God does not do what man might naturally expect. Nor does God need to give us His reasons.
Two birds stand side by side in the chapter. One was given a mother's affection; the ostrich was not. The same hand made both:
And who is to dispute with God? The God that gives one bird its remarkable character of affection takes away the commonest sense even from another bird of immense power and great swiftness, so that an ostrich could outrun a racehorse for a while — "she scorns the horse and his rider."
So what is a man supposed to do with a God who works like this?
But this is not without God, who takes in more than man can grasp. So let man take note, learn, and worship. Let him not set himself up to judge God or to grumble. That would be folly more guilty than the desert racer's own, and irreverence and rebellion besides.
The ostrich is not the only wild creature in the chapter. Set her among the rest, and what she lacks points to Someone who does not lack it:
All things, however wild and seemingly senseless, are His creatures, and He has not forgotten them. Here is another one: the ostrich of the desert. Her wings vibrate as she races with the speed of the wind… Here is a creature whom God Himself seems to have deprived of the ordinary motherly instincts. Yet Someone — Who? — cares for the helpless brood.
If the helpless brood is still cared for, then care does not depend on the carer we can see. Job's case looked the same: left alone to all appearances, yet never outside God's keeping.
All these questions about creatures had one target — Job himself:
Who is it? — was it you, Job, that managed all these things? Was it you that cared for them all, provided for them all? Were you born when they began? In fact, Job was laid low on every point. The sense of his own ignorance and presumption overwhelmed him in every possible way. He had been talking about the far more wonderful ways of a God who deals with a man's heart, a man's soul, a man's circumstances now… It was God showing His majesty, power, wisdom and goodness in outward things. If that were true of God, how much more in spiritual things?
- Withheld. The ostrich neglects her eggs and is hard toward her young. God kept wisdom and understanding from her. The verse names this as His act, not an accident of nature.
- Balanced. What He withholds in one place He supplies in another: the same bird that lacks common sense can outrun a horse.
- Compared. One bird gets a mother's affection; the ostrich gets none. God makes one creature unlike another, and no one may dispute it.
- Covered. Even the brood left in the dust survives — proof that God's care does not depend on the carer we can see.
- Silenced. Job had to draw the line upward. If God's wisdom and goodness reach a desert bird, they reach a man's heart and circumstances too. What God asks for is worship, not complaint.