17Because God has made her forget wisdom,
And has not given her a share of understanding. 18“When she lifts herself on high,
She laughs at the horse and his rider. 19“Do you give the horse his might?
Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20“Do you make him leap like the locust?
His majestic snorting is terrible. 21“He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
He goes out to meet the weapons. 22“He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
And he does not turn back from the sword. 23“The quiver rattles against him,
The flashing spear and javelin. 24“With shaking and rage he races over the ground,
And he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet. 25“As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’
And he scents the battle from afar,
And the thunder of the captains and the war cry. 26“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,
Stretching his wings toward the south? 27“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
And makes his nest on high? 28“On the cliff he dwells and lodges,
Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place. 29“From there he spies out food;
His eyes see it from afar. 30“His young ones also suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there is he.”
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Because God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
because God has deprived it of wisdom and did not give it any understanding. King James Bible
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. Douay-Rheims Bible
For God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he given her understanding. Darby Bible Translation
For +God hath deprived her of wisdom, and hath not furnished her with understanding. English Revised Version
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. Webster's Bible Translation
Because God hath withheld wisdom from her, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. World English Bible
because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. Young's Literal Translation
For God hath caused her to forget wisdom, And He hath not given a portion To her in understanding:
Job 39:16 "She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers; Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;
Job 39:18 "When she lifts herself on high, She laughs at the horse and his rider.
Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary Verses 13-18 The ostrich is a wonderful animal, a very large bird, but it never flies. Some have called it a winged camel. God here gives an account of it, and observes, I. Something that it has in common with the peacock, that is, beautiful feathers (v. 13): Gavest thou proud wings unto the peacocks? so some read it. Fine feathers make proud birds. The peacock is an emblem of pride; when he struts, and shows his fine feathers, Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like him. The ostrich too has goodly feathers, and yet is a foolish bird; for wisdom does not always go along with beauty and gaiety. Other birds do not envy the peacock or the ostrich their gaudy colours, nor complain for want of them; why then should we repine if we see others wear better clothes than we can afford to wear? God gives his gifts variously, and those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale than the tail of the peacock, the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful wings and feathers of the ostrich, which can never rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? II. Something that is peculiar to itself, 1. Carelessness of her young. It is well that this is peculiar to herself, for it is a very bad character. Observe, (1.) How she exposes her eggs; she does not retire to some private place, and make a nest there, as the sparrows and swallows do (Ps. 84:3), and there lay eggs and hatch her young. Most birds, as well as other animals, are strangely guided by natural instinct in providing for the preservation of their young. But the ostrich is a monster in nature, for she drops her eggs any where upon the ground and takes no care to hatch them. If the sand and the sun will hatch them, well and good; they may for her, for she will not warm them, v. 14. Nay, she takes no care to preserve them: The foot of the traveller may crush them, and the wild beast break them, v. 15. But how then are any young ones brought forth, and whence is it that the species has not perished? We must suppose either that God, by a special providence, with the heat of the sun and the sand (so some think), hatches the neglected eggs of the ostrich, as he feeds the neglected young ones of the raven, or that, though the ostrich often leaves her eggs thus, yet not always. (2.) The reason why she does thus expose her eggs. It is, [1.] For want of natural affection (v. 16): She is hardened against her young ones. To be hardened against any is unamiable, even in a brute-creature, much more in a rational creature that boasts of humanity, especially to be hardened against young ones, that cannot help themselves and therefore merit compassion, that give no provocation and therefore merit no hard usage: but it is worst of all for her to be hardened against her own young ones, as though they were not hers, whereas really they are parts of herself. Her labour in laying her eggs is in vain and all lost, because she has not that fear and tender concern for them that she should have. Those are most likely to lose their labour that are least in fear of losing it. [2.] For want of wisdom (v. 17): God has deprived her of wisdom. This intimates that the art which other animals have to nourish and preserve their young is God's gift, and that, where it exists not, God denies it, that by the folly of the ostrich, as well as by the wisdom of the ant, we may learn to be wise; for, First, As careless as the ostrich is of her eggs so careless many people are of their own souls; they make no provision for them, no proper nest in which they may be safe, leave them exposed to Satan and his temptations, which is a certain evidence that they are deprived of wisdom. Secondly, So careless are many parents of their children; some of their bodies, not providing for their own house, their own bowels, and therefore worse than infidels, and as bad as the ostrich; but many more are thus careless of their children's souls, take no care of their education, send them abroad into the world untaught, unarmed, forgetting what corruption there is in the world through lust, which will certainly crush them. Thus their labour in rearing them comes to be in vain; it were better for their country that they had never been born. Thirdly, So careless are too many ministers of their people, with whom they should reside; but they leave them in the earth, and forget how busy Satan is to sow tares while men sleep. They overlook those whom they should oversee, and are really hardened against them. 2. Care of herself. She leaves her eggs in danger, but, if she herself be in danger, no creature shall strive more to get out of the way of it than the ostrich, v. 18. Then she lifts up her wings on high (the strength of which then stands her in better stead than their beauty), and, with the help of them, runs so fast that a horseman at full speed cannot overtake her: She scorneth the horse and his rider. Those that are least under the law of natural affection often contend most for the law of self-preservation. Let not the rider be proud of the swiftness of his horse when such an animal as the ostrich shall out-run him.
Job 39 Commentaries: Barnes • Clarke • Darby • Gill • Geneva • Guzik • JFB • Keil / Delitzsch • KJV Translators' • Henry's Concise • Matthew Henry • Scofield • TSK • WesleyNIV / NLT / ESV / GWT / KJV / ASV / DRB Jump to Previous Occurrence
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Caused Deprived Endow Forget Good Imparted Measure Mind Portion Sense Share Understanding Wisdom Withheld New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Alphabetical: a And Because did endow for forget give given God good has her made not of or sense share understanding wisdom with Bible Browser | |
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Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica On the Animals
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John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament |
