an ostrich (from its wail) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wings
כְּנַףke.naf-
H3671
an edge or extremity · noun, common feminine singular construct
peacocks
נֶעֱלָ֑סָהne.'e.La.sah
H5965
to leap for joy · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
wings
אֶ֝בְרָ֗ה'ev.Rah
H84
a pinion · noun, common feminine singular absolute
feathers
חֲסִידָ֥הcha.si.Dah
H2624
the kind (maternal) bird · noun, common feminine singular absolute
ostrich
וְנֹצָֽהve.no.Tzah
H5133
a pinion (or wing feather) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but…
Zechariah 5:9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the…
Leviticus 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
1 Kings 10:22 For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silve…
2 Chronicles 9:21 For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silve…
Job 30:29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Psalms 104:17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 39:13-18
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 (Job 39:13): 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;…
Rather, "the wing of the ostrich hen"--literally, "the crying bird"; as the Arab name for it means "song"; referring to its night cries (Job 30:29; Mic 1:8) vibrating joyously. "Is it not like the quill and feathers of the pious bird" (the stork)? [UMBREIT]. The vibrating, quivering wing, serving for sail and oar at once, is characteristic of the ostrich in full course. Its white and black feathers in the wing and tail are like the stork's. But, unlike that bird, the symbol of parental love in the East, it with seeming want of natural (pious) affection deserts its young. Both birds are poetically called by descriptive, instead of their usual appellative, names.
Adam Clarke on Job 39:13
The goodly wings unto the peacocks? - I believe peacocks are not intended here; and the Hebrew word רננים renanim should be translated ostriches; and the term חסידה chasidah, which we translate ostrich, should be, as it is elsewhere translated, stork; and perhaps the word נצה notsah, rendered here feathers, should be translated hawk, or pelican. The Vulgate has, Penna struthionis similis est pennis herodii et accipitris; "the feather of the ostrich is like to that of the stork and the hawk." The Chaldee has, "The wing of the wild cock, who crows and claps his wings, is like to the wing of the stork and the hawk." The Septuagint, not knowing what to make of these different terms, have left th…
The sort of wings described here appears to signify the synagogue of those who led Christ to the cross. Indeed, who is that mother who generated many children but whose children are not hers? It can only be the one who gave birth to the prophets and brought up the apostles, who are not hers though. Indeed both prophets and apostles, after being adopted into the church, abandoned it.
"The plumage of the ostrich mingles with the wings of the heron and the hawk. The ostrich, which can not fly, is the figure of slow spirits. These, however, have received enough graces from Him who has chosen the foolish of this world, so that they may walk with a speed equal to that of the most beautiful intelligences, represented by the other two species of birds. This is the meaning of this passage.
The wing of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron and the hawk. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 36. What is signified by the name 'ostrich,' but the synagogue, which had indeed the wings of the law, but from grovelling in its heart in things below, never raised itself from the earth? But what is expressed by the 'heron' and the 'hawk,' but the ancient fathers, who had power even in their living to soar to those truths, which they were able to perceive by understanding? The wing, therefore, of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron and the hawk; because the voice of the synagogue maintained in its words the doctrine of the early teachers, but knew it not in its living. Whence also the Truth warns the people of this same synagogue against the Scribes and Pharisees, saying; The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore whatsoever they have said to you, observe and do: but do not ye after their works. [Mat. 23, 2] We could say much of the habits of the heron, but since its wing only is brought to our memory, we are prevented speaking of its habits.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ostrich — (Lam. 4:3), the rendering of Hebrew pl. enim; so called from its greediness and gluttony. The allusion here is to the habit of the ostrich with reference to its eggs, which is thus described: “The…
Peacock — (Heb. tuk, apparently borrowed from the Tamil tokei). This bird is indigenous to India. It was brought to Solomon by his ships from Tarshish (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chr. 9:21), which in this case was…
Stork — Heb. hasidah, meaning “kindness,” indicating thus the character of the bird, which is noted for its affection for its young. It is in the list of birds forbidden to be eaten by the Levitical law…
Birds · Habits of — Habits of
Ostrich, The · Furnished with wings and feathers — Furnished with wings and feathers
Ostriches · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Peacock · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Job 39:13
Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?.... Rather "ostriches", as the Vulgate Latin and Tigurine versions render it; some render it, "the wing of those that exult is joyful", so Montanus; that is, of the ostriches; who, in confidence of their wings, exult and glory over the horse and his rider, Job 39:18; for peacocks are not remarkable for their wings, but for their tails; whereas the wings of the ostrich are as sails unto them, as several writers observe (k); and with which they rather run, or row, than fly: hence it is called by Plautus (l) "passer marinus", the sea sparrow: and the feathers of it are more goodly than those of the wings of the peacock; and besides, it is a questi…
13 The wing of the ostrich vibrates joyously,
Is she pious, wing and feather?
14 No, she leaveth her eggs in the earth
And broodeth over the dust,
15 Forgetting that a foot may crush them,
And the beast of the field trample them.
16 She treateth her young ones harshly as if they were not hers;
In vain is her labour, without her being distressed.
17 For Eloah hath caused her to forget wisdom,
And gave her no share of understanding.
18 At the time when she lasheth herself aloft,
She derideth the horse and horseman.
As the wild ass and the ox-like oryx cannot be tamed by man, and employed in his service like the domestic ass and ox, so the ostrich, although resembling the stork in its stilt-lik…
In the ancient Near East, the ostrich had a reputation as a bird that God had deprived of wisdom.
Rashi on Job 39:13
The wing of the renanim rejoices This is the name of a huge bird, called in the language of the Mishnah, Bar Yochni (Bechoroth 57b).
the winged Heb. אֶבְרָה. Every bird is called אֶבְרָה because it flies; i.e., either the bird named “stork,” or the bird called nozah. Note her behavior.
