because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in 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?
The bird in question
Older English Bibles read "peacocks" in verse 13. The Hebrew points to the ostrich instead, and sets her beside the stork:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
A nest left in the dust
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."
Leslie M. GrantAlso, 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.
Wisdom withheld by design
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:
William KellyAnd 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?
William KellyBut 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 brood still cared for
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:
Samuel RidoutAll 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.
What Job was meant to learn
All these questions about creatures had one target — Job himself:
William KellyWho 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?
Summary
- 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.