Job 39:16

Amplified Bible

ERROR : An error happened: 7 Couldn't connect to server Failed to connect to ::1: No route to host

Contextual Overview

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hardened: Lamentations 4:3

as: Deuteronomy 28:56, Deuteronomy 28:57, 1 Kings 3:26, 1 Kings 3:27, 2 Kings 6:28, 2 Kings 6:29, Lamentations 2:20, Romans 1:31

her labour: Ecclesiastes 10:15, Habakkuk 2:13

Reciprocal: Job 39:22 - General 1 Thessalonians 2:1 - in vain

Cross-References

:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

She is hardened against her young ones, as though [they were] not hers,.... Hence said to be cruel, Lamentations 4:3; not against the young ones she hatches, for Aelianus c reports her as very tender of her young, and exposing herself to danger for the preservation of them; but being a very forgetful creature, having laid its eggs in the sand, where it leaves them, forgets where it has laid them; and finding other eggs sits on them and hatches them, and regards the young as its own, and is hardened against its true and real young, as not belonging to her;

her labour is in vain without fear; in laying her eggs and leaving them in the dust, without fear of their being crushed and broken, which yet they are, and so her labour is in vain; or her labour in hatching the eggs of others, without any fear or care of their belonging to others, which yet they do, and so she labours in vain.

c Ut supra. (Vid. Aelian. l. 4. c. 37.)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

She is hardened against her young ones - The obvious meaning of this passage, which is a fair translation of the Hebrew, is, that the ostrich is destitute of natural affection for her young; or that she treats them as if she had not the usual natural affection manifested in the animal creation. This sentiment also occurs in Lamentations 4:3, “The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.” This opinion is controverted by Buffon, but seems fully sustained by those who have most attentively observed the habits of the ostrich. Dr. Shaw, as quoted by Paxton, and in Robinson’s Calmet, says, “On the least noise or trivial occasion she forsakes her eggs or her young ones, to which perhaps she never returns; or if she does, it may be too late either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the others.” “Agreeable to this account,” says Paxton, “the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed, some of which are sweet and good, and others addle and corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growths, according to the time it may be presumed they have been forsaken by the dam. They oftener meet a few of the little ones, not bigger than well-grown pullets, half-starved, straggling and moaning about like so many distressed orphans for their mothers.”

Her labour is in vain without fear - Herder renders this,” In vain is her travail, but she regards it not.” The idea in the passage seems to be this; that the ostrich has not that apprehension or provident care for her young which others birds have. It does not mean that she is an animal remarkably bold and courageous, for the contrary is the fact, and she is, according to the Arabian writers, timid to a proverb; but that she has none of the anxious solicitude for her young which others seem to have - the dread that they may be in want, or in danger, which leads them, often at the peril of their own lives, to provide for and defend them.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 39:16. She is hardened against her young — See before, and the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of the chapter. Job 39:30. She neglects her little ones, which are often found half starved, straggling, and moaning about, like so many deserted orphans, for their mother.