Job 39:16
Ostriches act cruelly towards their chicks; they act as though the chicks belonged to some other ostrich. They are not concerned if their chicks die, and so the laying of the eggs was in vain.
Translation for Translators
In The King James Version
In Context
15Ostriches do not worry that some wild animal may step on the eggs and crush them [DOU].
17That is because I did not allow ostriches to be wise. I did not enable them to be intelligent.
Cross References
1 Kings 3:26But the woman whose baby was alive loved her baby very much, so she said to the king, “No, Your Majesty! Do not allow him to kill the baby! Give her the child that is alive!” But the other woman said to the king, “No, cut it in half. Then it will not be her baby or my baby.”
Ecclesiastes 10:15Foolish people become so exhausted by the work that they do that they are unable to find the road to their town/homes.
Lamentations 4:3Even the female jackals/wolves feed their pups, but my people act cruelly toward their children; they are like [SIM] ostriches in the desert that abandon their eggs.
Romans 1:31Many non-Jews act in other morally foolish ways. Many do not do what they promised others that they would do. Many do not even love their own family members. And many do not act mercifully toward other people.
Matthew Henry on Job 39:14-19
Description of the Peacock and Ostrich. ( b. c. 1520.) 13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? 14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, 15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. 16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear; 17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. 18 What time she… Read the whole commentary →