Job 39:13

The Authorised Version is far from a correct representation. The peacock seems to have been first known, even to Israel, in the days of Solomon, and the name is an Indian word turned into Hebrew. It is the ostrich which is really in the first clause, contrasted with the stork in the second. "The wing of the ostrich flaps joyously: but has she the stork's pinion and plumage?" ... Certainly the peacock is not meant here. The peacock is more striking for its splendid tail when spread out, and that does not enter into the description given. The ostrich, unlike the stork, has no power of flight. It runs at the greatest speed, and it has none of that parental fondness which marks the stork.

notsah means "plumage," and it is translated ostrich in Job 39:13-18. Job 39:13, however, refers to the ostrich by the plural word renanim, which means "a crying or wailing." The Authorised Version translates that word "peacocks."

There is a contrast here between the ostrich and the stork. The ostrich makes a great fluttering, and it is also stupidly indifferent to its young. The stork is the most affectionate bird that God created. No other bird has such great care for its offspring.

The ostrich is another most interesting creature of God. It is a bird, but not a flying bird. It uses 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 beasts or men may walk. She does not consider that these eggs can easily be broken.

God gives one bird its remarkable character of affection. From another bird He takes away even the most basic sense — a bird of immense power and great speed, so fast that an ostrich could outrun a racehorse for a while.

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.

Here is a creature that God Himself has apparently deprived of the ordinary instincts of a mother. Yet Someone — Who? — cares for the helpless brood.

He dwells on two things in particular — His supremacy, and also His power, joined with the most tender care... In fact, Job was laid low on every point. A sense of his own ignorance overwhelmed him in every possible way. He had been presumptuous in talking about the far more wonderful ways of a God who deals with a man's heart, soul and 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?