Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Job 39:17

For God has caused her to forget wisdom, || And He has not given a portion || To her in understanding;

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Birds;   God;   Ostriches;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ostrich, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ostrich;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Animals;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Birds;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Job;   Knowledge;   Nature;   World;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Ostrich;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ostrich,;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For God has deprived her of wisdom;he has not endowed her with understanding.
Hebrew Names Version
Because God has deprived her of wisdom, Neither has he imparted to her understanding.
King James Version
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
English Standard Version
because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.
New Century Version
because God did not give the ostrich wisdom; God did not give it a share of good sense.
New English Translation
For God deprived her of wisdom, and did not impart understanding to her.
Amplified Bible
For God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.
New American Standard Bible
Because God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.
World English Bible
Because God has deprived her of wisdom, Neither has he imparted to her understanding.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For God had depriued him of wisedom, and hath giuen him no part of vnderstanding.
Legacy Standard Bible
Because God has made her forget wisdom,And has not given her a share of understanding.
Berean Standard Bible
For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.
Contemporary English Version
I myself made her foolish and without common sense.
Complete Jewish Bible
because God has deprived it of wisdom and given it no share in understanding.
Darby Translation
For +God hath deprived her of wisdom, and hath not furnished her with understanding.
Easy-to-Read Version
That's because I did not give wisdom to the ostrich. She is foolish, and I made her that way.
George Lamsa Translation
God has increased wisdom, but he has not given her a portion of it.
Good News Translation
It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom.
Lexham English Bible
because God made it forget wisdom, and he did not give it a share in understanding.
Literal Translation
because God has made her forget wisdom; and He has not given to her a share in understanding.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And that because God hath taken wisdome from him, & hath not geuen him vnderstondinge.
American Standard Version
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, Neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
Bible in Basic English
For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He imparted to her understanding.
King James Version (1611)
Because God hath depriued her of wisedome, neither hath he imparted to her vnderstanding.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And that because God hath taken wysdome from her, & hath not geuen her vnderstanding.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For God has withholden wisdom from her, and not given her a portion in understanding.
English Revised Version
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For God hath priued hym fro wisdom, and `yaf not vnderstondyng to hym.
Update Bible Version
Because God has deprived her of wisdom, Neither has he imparted to her understanding.
Webster's Bible Translation
Because God hath withheld wisdom from her, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
New King James Version
Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.
New Living Translation
For God has deprived her of wisdom. He has given her no understanding.
New Life Bible
Because God has not given her wisdom or her share of understanding.
New Revised Standard
because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For GOD hath suffered her to forget wisdom, and given her no share in understanding.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he given her understanding.
Revised Standard Version
because God has made her forget wisdom, and given her no share in understanding.
Young's Literal Translation
For God hath caused her to forget wisdom, And He hath not given a portion To her in understanding:
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Because God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.

Contextual Overview

13[The] wing of the crying ostriches exults, but as a pinion and feather of a stork? 14For she leaves her eggs on the earth, || And she warms them on the dust, 15And she forgets that a foot may press it, || And a beast of the field treads it down. 16It has hardened her young ones without her, || Her labor [is] in vain, without fear. 17For God has caused her to forget wisdom, || And He has not given a portion || To her in understanding;18At the time she lifts herself up on high, || She laughs at the horse and his rider.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 17:4, Job 35:11, Deuteronomy 2:30, 2 Chronicles 32:31, Isaiah 19:11-14, Isaiah 57:17, James 1:17

Reciprocal: Job 12:20 - taketh Psalms 119:19 - hide Isaiah 28:26 - For his God Isaiah 30:28 - causing

Cross-References

Genesis 39:2
And YHWH is with Joseph, and he is a prosperous man, and he is in the house of his lord the Egyptian,
Genesis 39:4
and Joseph finds grace in his eyes and serves him, and he appoints him over his house, and all that he has he has given into his hand.
Genesis 39:9
none is greater in this house than I, and he has not withheld from me anything, except you, because you [are] his wife; and how will I do this great evil? Then I have sinned against God."
Genesis 39:13
And it comes to pass, when she sees that he has left his garment in her hand, and flees outside,
Genesis 39:14
that she calls for the men of her house, and speaks to them, saying, "See, he has brought a man to us, a Hebrew, to play with us; he has come in to me, to lie with me, and I call with a loud voice,
Exodus 20:16
You do not answer [with] a false testimony against your neighbor.
Exodus 23:1
You do not lift up a vain report; you do not put your hand with a wicked man to be a violent witness.
1 Kings 18:17
[And it] comes to pass at Ahab's seeing Elijah that Ahab says to him, "Are you he—the troubler of Israel?"
Psalms 37:14
The wicked have opened a sword, || And they have bent their bow, || To cause the poor and needy to fall, || To slaughter the upright of the way.
Psalms 55:3
Because of the voice of an enemy, || Because of the oppression of the wicked, || For they cause sorrow to move against me, || And in anger they hate me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,.... Or "made her to forget" d what she had; an instance of her forgetfulness is mentioned

Job 39:15; and so Leo Africanus e says of it, that it is of a very short memory, and presently forgets the place where its eggs are laid;

neither hath he imparted to her understanding; many instances are given of its stupidity by historians, as that it will take anything that is offered to it to eat, stones, iron, c. f that it will thrust its head and neck into a thicket, fancying: it is hid and covered, and that none can see it; which Pliny g remarks as an instance of its foolishness; though Diodorus Siculus h takes this to be a point of prudence, for the preservation of those parts of it which are weakest. Strabo gives i another instance of its stupidity, its being so easily deceived by sportsmen, who, by putting the skin of an ostrich on their hands, and reaching out fruits or seeds to it, it will receive them of them, and be taken. Others observe the smallness of their heads, and so of their brains, as an argument of their want of understanding; and it has been remarked, as a proof of their having but few brains, that Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, had six hundred heads of ostriches dressed at once for his supper, for the sake of their brains k.

d השה "oblivisci fecit eum", Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. e Ut supra. (Desciptio. Africae, l. 9. p. 766.) f Aelian. ut supra. (de Animal. l. 5. c. 21.) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 1. g Ibid. (Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 1.) h Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 133.) i Geograph. l. 16. p. 531. k Lamprid. Vit. Heliogab. c. 20, 30.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because God hath deprived her of wisdom ... - That is, he has not imparted to her the wisdom which has been conferred on other animals. The meaning is, that all this remarkable arrangement, which distinguished the ostrich so much from other animals was to be traced to God. It was not the result of chance; it could not be pretended that it was by a human arrangement, but it was the result of divine appointment. Even in this apparent destitution of wisdom, there were reasons which had led to this appointment, and the care and good providence of God could be seen in the preservation of the animal. Particularly, though apparently so weak, and timid, and unwise, the ostrich had a noble hearing Job 39:18, and when aroused, would scorn the fleetest horse in the pursuit, and show that she was distinguished for properties that were expressive of the goodness of God toward her, and of his care over her.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 39:17. God hath deprived her of wisdom — Of this foolishness we have an account from the ancients; and here follow two instances:

"1. It covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself all out of sight because itself cannot see. So Claudian: -

____________ 'Stat lumine clauso

Ridendum revoluta caput: creditque latere

Quad non ipsa videt.'


"2. They who hunt them draw the skin of an ostrich's neck on one hand, which proves a sufficient lure to take them with the other. They have so little brain that Heliogabalus had six hundred heads for his supper. Here we may observe, that our judicious as well as sublime author just touches the great points of distinction in each creature, and then hastens to another. A description is exact when you cannot add but what is common to another thing; nor withdraw, but something peculiarly belonging to the thing described. A likeness is lost in too much description, as a meaning is often in too much illustration." - Dr. YOUNG.


 
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