Ostrich
VIEW:32 DATA:01-04-2020
OSTRICH
1. bath yaănâh, Lev_11:15, Deu_14:15, Job_30:29, Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:26, Jer_50:39, and Mic_1:8. In all these references AV [Note: Authorized Version.] has owl, but RV [Note: Revised Version.] ostrich. Lit. tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of Heb. is daughter of greed.
2. yĕçnîm, ostriches, Lam_4:3.
3. yĕnânîm, Job_39:13 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] peacocks, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ostrich. (In same verse chăsîdâh kindly is in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] mistranslated ostrich.)
The ostrich (Struthio camelus) still exists in the deserts to E. and S.E. of Syria; a live specimen was brought into Jerusalem a few years ago, and their eggs are from time to time offered for sale by the Bedouln.
The popular view of the ostrichs neglect of her eggs appears in Job_39:14-15, but the following is her real habit. The ostrich is polygamous, and a group of three or four hens, jealously guarded by a cock, lay some thirty or forty eggs in a common nest in the ground, covering them over with sand. During the day the heat of the sun is a sufficient incubator, but at night the birds take turns in keeping the eggs warm. A few scattered eggs, said to be used for food for the young chicks, are laid after the nest is closed, and these have given rise to the popular view. The feathers (Job_39:13), the swift pace (Job_39:18), and the mournful cry (Mic_1:8) of the ostrich are all referred to in Scripture, and in Job_30:28 its cry is associated with that other melancholy night-crythe wailing of the jackals.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
So translated for "owl" (Lev_11:16), bath haya'anah "daughter of greediness" or "daughter of wailing." Isa_34:13 translated "a dwelling for ostriches," not "a court for owls" (Isa_43:20, margin). Feminine to express the species. Some Arabs eat the flesh. It will swallow almost any substance, iron, stone, etc., to assist the triturating action of the gizzard. The date stone, the hardest of vegetable substances, is its favourite food. Its cry resembles the lion's, so that Hottentots mistake it. Dr. Livingstone could only distinguish them by the fact that the ostrich roars by day, and the lion roars by night. Rosenmuller makes the derivation "daughter of the desert." (Mic_1:8), Job_30:29 - "I am a companion to ostriches" (not "owls"), living among solitudes. In Lam_4:3, yeenim, "cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness." renanim; Job_39:13, "peacocks." Rather, "the ostrich hen," literally, "cries," referring to its dismal night cries, as in Job_30:29. Translated: "the wing of the ostrich hen vibrates joyously.
Is it like the quill and feathers of the pious bird (the stork)? (surely not.)" The quivering wing characterizes the ostrich in full course. Its white and black feathers in the wing and tail are like the stork's feathers; but, unlike that bird, the symbol of parental love, it deserts its young. If the "peacock"(which has a distinct name, tukiyim) had been meant, the tail, its chief beauty, not the wings, would have been mentioned. Ostriches are polygamous. The hens lay their eggs promiscuously in one nest, a mere hole scratched in the sand, and they cover them with sand a foot deep. The parent birds incubate by turn during the night, but leave them by day to the sun's heat in tropical countries. Hence, arose the notion of her lack of parental love: "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust." But in non-tropical countries the female incubates her eggs by day, the male takes his turn on the nest at night. There they watch the eggs so carefully that they will even kill jackals in their defense.
Moreover, she lays some of her eggs on the surface around the nest; these seem to be forsaken; "she forgeteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them." They are actually for the nutriment of the young birds. It is a shy bird. The only stupidity in the ostrich which warrants the Arab designation "the stupid bird" at all is its swallowing at times of substances which prove fatal to it, for instance, hot bullets, according to Dr. Shaw (Travels, ii. 345); also its never swerves from the course it once adopts, so that hunters often kill it by taking a shortcut, to which it only runs faster. Livingstone calculates its stride at 12 ft. on an average, and 30 strides in every 10 seconds, i.e. 26 miles an hour. "She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers," i.e. to man she seems (Scripture uses phenomenal language, not thereby asserting the scientific accuracy of it) as if she neglected her young; but she is guided by a sure instinct from God, as much as animals whose instincts seem (at first sight) to be more provident. At a slight noise she forsakes her eggs, as if hardened toward her young; but it is actually a mark of young sagacity, since her capture might be the only result of returning.
"Her labour (in producing eggs) is in vain, (yet she is) without fear," unlike other birds who, if one and another egg be removed, will go on laying until the full number is restored. "Because God hath deprived her of wisdom," etc.: the argument is, her very seeming lack of wisdom is not without the wise design of God, just as in the saint's trials, which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hidden a wise design. Her excellencies, notwithstanding her seeming deficiencies, are enumerated next; "she (proudly) lifteth up herself on high (Gesenius, 'she lasheth herself' up to the course by flapping her wings), she scorneth the horse." The largest and swiftest of cursorial animals. Its strength is immense; the wings are not used for flying, but are spread "quivering" (see above) as sails before the wind, and serve also as oars. The long white plumes in the wing and tail come to us from Barbary; the general plumage is black, the head and neck is bare. Their height is more than eight feet. Zoologically, it approaches the mammalian type. Its habitat is the desert here and there, from the Sahara to the Cape of South Africa, and in the Euphratean plains (Isa_13:21, margin).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Ostrich. A large bird, native of African and Arabia, nearly ten feet high, having a long neck and short wings. It seeks retired places, Job_30:29; Lam_4:13, and has a peculiar, mournful cry, that is sometimes mistaken by the Arabs, for that of the lion. Mic_1:8. In Job_39:13-18, will be found a description of the bird's habits. Ostriches are polygamous; the hens lay their eggs promiscuously in one nest, which is merely a hole scratched in the sand; the eggs are then covered over to the depth of about a foot, and are, in the case of those birds which are found within the tropics, generally left for the greater part of the day to the heat of the sun, the parent-birds taking their turns at incubation during the night.
The habit of the ostrich leaving its eggs to be matured by the sun's heat is usually appealed to in order to confirm the scriptural account, "she leaveth her eggs to the earth;" but this is probably the case only with the tropical birds. We believe that the true explanation of this passage is that some of the eggs are left exposed around the nest for the nourishment of the young birds.
It is a general belief, among the Arabs, that the ostrich is a very stupid bird; indeed, they have a proverb, "stupid as an ostrich." As is well known, the ostrich will swallow almost any substance, iron, stones, and even has been known to swallow , "several leaden bullets scorching hot from the mould." But, in many other respects, the ostrich is not as stupid as this would indicate, and is very hard to capture. It is the largest of all known birds, and perhaps, the swiftest of all cursorial animals. ? The feathers so much prized are the long white plumes of the wings. The best are brought from Barbary, and the west coast of Africa.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
יענח ; in Arabic neamah; in Greek στρουθοκαμηλος, the camel bird; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is called thar edsjammel, the camel bird, Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; Job_30:29; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jer_50:39; Lam_4:3; Mic_1:8; רננים , Job_39:13. The first name in the places above quoted is, by our own translators, generally rendered owls. Now it should be recollected, says the author of Scripture Illustrated, that the owl is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in several of these passages, the joneh is associated with deserts, dry, extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description, and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived. The Hebrew phrase בת היענה , means the daughter of vociferation, and is understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.
Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair, stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. The ostrich, says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal so remarkably large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are invariable. On the least noise, says Dr. Shaw, 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. Agreeably to this account the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed: some of them are sweet and good, others are addle and corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growth, according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken of the dam. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones no bigger than well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and moaning about like so many distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich may be said to be hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers; her labour, in hatching and attending them so far, being vain, without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterward. This want of affection is also recorded, Lam_4:3, the daughter of my people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;' that is, by apparently deserting their own, and receiving others in return. Natural affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, laugh at the horse and his rider. They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be insensible of fatigue.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
os?trich (יענה, ya‛ănāh; στρουθός, strouthós; Latin Struthio camelus): The largest bird now living. The Hebrew words ya‛ănāh, which means ?greediness,? and bath ha- ya‛ănāh, ?daughter of greediness,? are made to refer to the indiscriminate diet of the ostrich, to which bird they apply; and again to the owl, with no applicability. The owl at times has a struggle to swallow whole prey it has taken, but the mere fact that it is a night hunter forever shuts it from the class of greedy and promiscuous feeders. The bodies of owls are proverbially lean like eagles. Neither did the owl frequent several places where older versions of Jer and Isa place it; so the translations are now correctly rendered ?ostrich.? These birds came into the Bible because of their desert life, the companions they lived among there, and because of their night cries that were guttural, terrifying groans, like the roaring of lions. The birds were brought into many pictures of desolation, because people dreaded their fearful voices. They horned on the trackless deserts that were dreaded by travelers, and when they came feeding on the fringe of the wilderness, they fell into company with vulture, eagle, lion, jackal and adder, and joined their voices with the night hawks and owls. For these reasons no birds were more suitable for drawing strong comparisons from.
1. Physical Peculiarities:
They attained a height ranging from 6 to 8 ft., and weighed from 200 to 300 lbs. The head was small with large eyes having powerful vision, and protected by lashes. The neck was long, covered with down, and the windpipe showed, while large bites could be seen to slide down the gullet. The legs were bare, long, and the muscles like steel from the long distances covered in desert travel. The foot was much like the cloven hoof of a beast. The inner toe was 7 inches long, with a clawlike hoof, the outer, smaller with no claw. With its length and strength of leg and the weight of foot it could strike a blow that saved it from attack by beasts smaller than a leopard. The wings were small, the muscles soft and flabby. They would not bear the weight of the bird, but the habit of lifting and beating them proved that this assisted in attaining speed in running (compare Xen. Anab. i. 5, 2, 3). The body was covered with soft flexible feathers, the wings and tail growing long plumes, for which the bird has been pursued since the beginning of time. These exquisite feathers were first used to decorate the headdress and shields of desert chieftains, then as decorations for royalty, and later for hat and hair ornaments. The badge of the Prince of Wales is three white ostrich plumes. The females are smaller, the colors gray and white, the males a glossy black, the wing and tail plumes white. The ostrich has three physical peculiarities that stagger scientists. It has eyelashes, developed no doubt to protect the eyes from the dust and sand of desert life. On the wings are two plumeless shafts like large porcupine quills. These may be used in resisting attack. It also has a bladder like a mammal, that collects uric acid, the rarest organ ever developed in a feathered creature.
2. Eggs and Care of Young:
These birds homed on the deserts of Arabia and at the lower end of the great Salt Sea. Here the ostrich left her eggs on the earth and warmed them in the sand. That they were not hard baked was due to the fact that they were covered for protection during the day and brooded through the cooler nights. The eggs average 3 lbs. weight. They have been used for food in the haunts of the ostrich since the records of history began, and their stout shells for drinking-vessels. It is the custom of natives on finding a nest to take a long stick and draw out an egg. If incubation has advanced enough to spoil the eggs for use, the nest is carefully covered and left; if fresh, they are eaten, one egg being sufficient for a small family. No doubt these were the eggs to which Job referred as being tasteless without salt (Job_6:6). The number of eggs in the nest was due to the fact that the birds were polygamous, one male leading from 2 to 7 females, all of which deposited their eggs in a common nest. When several females wanted to use the nest at the same time, the first one to reach it deposited her egg in it, and the others on the sand close beside. This accounts for the careless habits of the ostrich as to her young. In this communal nest, containing from 2 to 3 dozen eggs, it is impossible for the mother bird to know which of the young is hers. So all of them united in laying the eggs and allowing the father to look after the nest and the young. The bird first appears among the abominations in Lev_11:16 the Revised Version (British and American) the King James Version ?owl?; Deu_14:16, the Revised Version (British and American) ?little owl,? the King James Version ?owl.? This must have referred to the toughness of grown specimens, since there was nothing offensive in the bird's diet to taint its flesh and the young tender ones were delicious meat. In his agony, Job felt so much an outcast that he cried: ?I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches? (Job_30:29).
Again he records that the Almighty discoursed to him about the ostrich in the following manner: ?The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; But are they the pinions and plumage of love?? etc. (Job_39:13-18).
3. Old Testament References:
The ostrich history previously given explains all this passage save the last two verses, the first of which is a reference to the fact that the Arabs thought that the ostrich was a stupid bird, because, when it had traveled to the point of exhaustion, it hid its head and thought its body safe, and because some of its eggs were found outside the nest. The second was due to a well-known fact that, given a straight course, the ostrich could outrun a horse. The birds could attain and keep up a speed of 60 miles an hour for the greater part of half a day and even longer, hence, it was possible to capture them only by a system of relay riders (Xenophon, op. cit.) When Isaiah predicted the fall of Babylon, he used these words: ?But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there? (Isa_13:21). Because this was to be the destruction of a great city, located on the Euphrates River and built by the fertility and prosperity of the country surrounding it, and the ruins those of homes, the bird indicated by every natural condition would be the owl. The wild goats clambering over the ruins would be natural companions and the sneaking wolves - but not the big bird of daytime travel, desert habitation, accustomed to constant pursuit for its plumage. Exactly the same argument applies to the next reference by the same writer (Isa_34:13). ?And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest? (Isa_34:14). ?The beasts of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen? (Isa_43:20). Here we find the ostrich in its natural location, surrounded by creatures that were its daily companions. The next reference also places the bird at home and in customary company: ?Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwelI there, and the ostriches (the King James Version ?owls?) shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation? (Jer_50:39). ?Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness? (Lam_4:3).
This reference is made to the supposed cruelty of the ostrich in not raising its young.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Fig. 283?Ostrich
The ostrich is frequently mentioned in the Bible in terms of great beauty and precision; which commentators, perhaps more conversant with the exploded misstatements of the ancients than with the true physiological history of the bird in question, have not been happy in explaining, sometimes referring it to wrong species, such as the peacock, or mistaking it for the stork, the eagle, or the bustard (Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; Job_30:29; Job_39:13; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jer_50:39; Lam_4:3; Mic_1:8). In several of these passages 'owls' has been used in our version for ostriches, which the original word there employed really means.
There are two varieties, if not two species, of the ostrich; one never attaining seven feet in height, and covered chiefly with gray and dingy feathers; the other sometimes growing to more than ten feet, and of a glossy black plumage; the males in both having the great feathers of the wings and tail white, but the females the tail only of that color. Their dimensions render them both the largest animals of the feathered creation now existing. They appear promiscuously in Asia and Africa, but the troops or coveys of each are always separate; the gray is more common in the south, while the black, which grows largest in Caffraria, predominates to the north of the equator. The common-sized ostrich weighs about eighty pounds.
Ostriches are gregarious?from families consisting of a male with one or several female birds, and perhaps a brood or two of young, up to troops of near a hundred. They keep aloof from the presence of water in the wild and arid desert, mixing without hesitation among herds of gnu, wild asses, quaggas, and other striped Equid?, and the larger species of Antilopid?. From the nature of their food, which consists of seeds and vegetables, although seldom or never in want of drink, it is evident that they must often approach more productive regions, which, by means of the great rapidity of motion they possess, is easily accomplished; and they are consequently known to be very destructive to cultivated fields. As the organ of taste is very obtuse in these birds, they swallow with little or no discrimination all kinds of substances, and among others stones; it is also probable that, like poultry, they devour lizards, snakes, and the young of birds that fall in their way. It is not yet finally decided whether the two species are polygamous, though concurrent testimony seems to leave no doubt of the fact: there is, however, no uncertainty respecting the nest, which is merely a circular basin scraped out of the soil, with a slight elevation at the border, and sufficiently large to contain a great number of eggs; for from twelve to about sixty have been found in them, exclusive of a certain number, always observed to be outlying, or placed beyond the raised border of the nest, and amounting apparently to nearly one-third of the whole. These are supposed to feed the young brood when first hatched, either in their fresh state, or in a corrupted form, when the substance in them has produced worms. These eggs are of different periods of laying, like those within, and the birds hatched form only a part of the contents of a nest, until the breeding season closes. The eggs are of different sizes, some attaining to seven inches in their longer diameter, and others less, having a dirty white shell, finely speckled with rust color; and their weight borders on three pounds. Within the tropics they are kept sufficiently warm in the daytime not to require incubation, but beyond these one or more females sit constantly, and the male bird takes that duty himself after the sun is set. It is then that the short roar maybe heard during darkness; and at other times different sounds are uttered, likened to the cooing of pigeons, the cry of a hoarse child, and the hissing of a goose; no doubt expressive of different emotions.
Although possessed of strength sufficient to carry with velocity two adult human beings, and although readily tamed, even when taken in a state of maturity, nay easily rendered familiar and docile, and although they are by no means the stupid creatures they have been believed, still their voracity, leading to the destruction of young poultry, and the impracticability of guiding their powers, will ever render them unsafe and unprofitable domestics. Though at first sight useless, we may be assured that Providence has not appointed their abode in the desert in vain; and they still continue to exist, not only in Africa, but in the region of Arabia, east and south of Palestine beyond the Euphrates; but it may be a question whether they extend so far to the eastward as Goa, although that limit is assigned them by late French ornithologists.
The flesh of a young ostrich is said to be not unpalatable; but its being declared unclean in the Mosaic legislation may be ascribed to a twofold cause. The first is sufficiently obvious from its indiscriminate voracity already mentioned, and the other may have been an intention to lay a restriction upon the Israelites in order to wean them from the love of a nomade life, which hunting in the desert would have fostered; for ostriches must be sought on the barren plains, where they are not accessible on foot, except by stratagem. When pursued, they cast stones and gravel behind them with great force; and though it requires long endurance and skill, their natural mode of fleeing in a circular form enables well-mounted Arabs to overtake and slay them.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Ostrich
(יִעֲנָה, yaanah', always with בִּת, daughter of the ostrich, i.e. the female ostrich. See also the cognate יָעֵן, yaen, Lam_4:3. In Job_39:13, the word נוֹצָה, notsah, feathers, is wrongly rendered ostrich; while רְנָנַים, female ostriches, is translated peacocks, in the A.V.; Sept. στρουθός, Deu_14:15, but in Isaiah and in Mic_1:8, Sept. σειρῆνες; see Schleusner, Lex . s.v.). In Arabic the bird is called nea-mah, also thareds jammel, i.e. camel-bird; like the Persian sutur morgh; comp. Greek στρουθοκάμηλος (Diod. Sic. 2:50), and Lat. Struthiocamelus, in Pliny.
1. Names.
(1.) It is now generally admitted that the word yaansh should be rendered ostrich; as the passages in which it occurs require us to understand some inhabitant of the remote desert, and seem thus to exclude the owl, the usual rendering in the English Version (Job_30:29; Job_39:13; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13). SEE OWL.
The etymology of the word also accords better with the former rendering. The wordn יִעֲנָה, yaanah', like רְנָנַים, renanim', appears to refer to the habit of uttering loud-sounding cries; and the third name, bath-hayaanah, the daughter of vociferation, or loud moaning, is in conformity with the others, and an Oriental figurative mode of expressing the same faculty (which exists not, we think, in the females alone, but in the whole species); for the ostrich has an awful voice, which, when heard on the desert, is sometimes mistaken in the night, even by natives, for the sound of a beast. This, too, is the almost unanimous rendering of the old translators (Gesen. Thes. 2:609), while the reference of the word to the owl, supported by Oedmann (Samml. 3:35 sq.), rests on no 'early testimony. Bochart (2:830 sq.) would understand the male ostrich by תִּחְמָס, in Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; but no ancient version supports this rendering. SEE NIGHT-HAWK.
Gesenius (Thes. s.v. יִעֲנָה) refers the word to the root יָעִן, which signifies to be greedy or voracious; and demurs to the explanation given by Michaelis (Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. p. 1127) and by Rosenmüller (Not. ad Hieroz. 2:829, and Schol. ad Lev_11:16), who trace the Hebrew word yaanah to one which 'in Arabic denotes hard and sterile land: bath-hayaanah accordingly would mean daughter of the desert. Without entering into the merits of these various explanations, it will be enough to mention that any one of them is well suited to the habits of the ostrich. This bird, as is well known, will swallow almost any substance, pieces of iron, large stones, etc.; this it does probably in order to assist the triturating action of the gizzard: so that the Oriental expression of daughter of voracity is eminently characteristic of the ostrich. With regard to the two other derivations of the Hebrew word, we may add that the cry of the ostrich is said sometimes to resemble that of the lion, so that the Hottentots of South Africa are deceived by it; and that its particular haunts are the parched and desolate tracts of sandy deserts.
(2.) Ya'en (יָעֵן) occurs only in the plural number יְעֵנַים, ye'enim (Sept. στρουθίον, Vulg. struthio), in Lam_4:3, where the context shows that the ostrich is intended: The daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. This is important, as showing that theabove word, which is merely the feminine form of this one, with the addition of bath, daughter, clearly points to the ostrich as its correct translation, even if all the old versions were not agreed upon the matter.
(3.) Ranan, רָנָן, in the plural form רְנָנָים, renanim; Sept. τερπόμενοι; Vulg. struthio), alone occurs in Job_39:13; where, however. it is clear from the whole passage (13-18) that ostriches are intended by the word. The A. V. renders rehanim by peacocks, a translation which has not found favor with commentators; as peacocks, for which there is a different Hebrew name (תֻּכַּיַּים), were probably not known to the people of Arabia or Syria before the time of Solomon. SEE PEACOCK.
The Hebrew renanins appears to be derived from the root רָנִן, randan, to wail, or to utter a stridulous sound, in allusion to this bird's nocturnal cries. Gesenius compares the Arabic zimar, a female ostrich, from the root zamar, to sing.
2. Description. The head of the ostrich is small, and not composed of strong bones; the bill, in form somewhat like that of a duck, is flat, with a nail at the apex, and broad at the gape; the eyes, hazel-colored, have a clear and distinct vision of objects to a great distance, although when seen obliquely they have an opalescent appearance; the auditory apparatus is large and open, notwithstanding that in the pairing season ostriches are said to be very deaf; the neck, long and slender, is, together with the head, but scantiy clothed with whitish shining hairs, and in the pairing season becomes for a time pink or rosy red; towards the base it assumes the general color of the plumage, which, with the quill and tail plumes, is entirely composed of loose downy-webbed feathers, only differing in size and color; the wings, each from three to four feet long, exclusive of feathers, are entirely naked on the inner side, and are supplied towards the end of the pinion bone on each side with two sharp-pointed quills resembling those of a porcupine, and no doubt serving for defense; the thighs, nearly bare of plumage, and of a deep flesh-color, are as full and muscular as those of a strong man, and the tarsi or legs, of corresponding length with the proportions of the neck, are covered with broad horny scales, and terminate in two toes; the inner, being the longest, is armed with a broad, strong claw; and that on the outside, only half the length of the other, is without any. The great feathers, so much prized in commerce, are twenty in each wing, those of the tail being nearly always useless, broken, and worn. The cloven feet, long neck, and vaulted back of these birds are in themselves quite sufficient to suggest to the imagination an animal of the camel kind: but these external appearances are not the only points of resemblance; the stomach is so formed as to appear possessed of a third ventricle, and there are other structural particulars, such as a sternum not keel-shaped, as in birds, but in the form of a round buckler, to protect the chest, which, with the fact that they are without the muscular conformation to render them capable of flying, altogether approximate these birds to quadrupeds, and particularly to the order of Ruminantia.
3. Habits. Ostriches are gregarious from families consisting of a male with one or several female birds, and perhaps a brood or two of young, up to troops of near a hundred. They keep aloof from: the presence of water in the wild and desert, mixing without hesitation among herds of gnu, wild asses, quaggas, and other striped Equidae, and the larger species of Antilopidte. From. the nature of their food, which consists of seeds and vegetables, although seldom or never in want of drink, it is evident that they must often approach more productive regions, which, by means of the great rapidity of motion they possess, is easily accomplished; and they are consequently known to be very destructive to cultivated fields. As the organ of taste is very obtuse in these birds, they swallow with little or no discrimination all kinds of substances, and among these stones; it is also probable that, like poultry, they devour lizards, snakes, and the young of birds that fail in their way. One has even been known to snap a traveler's sketch-book from his hand, attracted to it by the sight of the white paper. It is not yet finally decided whether the two species are polygamous, though concurrent testimony seems to leave no doubt of the fact: there is, however, no uncertainty respecting the nest, which is merely a circular basin scraped out of the soil, with a slight elevation at the border, and sufficiently large to contain a great number of eggs; from twelve to about sixty have been found in them, exclusive of a certain number always observed to be outlying, or placed beyond the raised border of the nest, and amounting apparently to nearly one third of the whole. These are supposed to feed the young brood when first hatched, either in their fresh state, or in a corrupted form, when the substance in them has produced worms. These eggs are of different periods of laying, like those within, and the birds hatched form only a part of the contents of a nest, until the breeding season closes. The eggs are of different sizes, some attaining to seven inches in their longer diameter, and others less, having a dirty white shell, finely speckled with rust color; their weight borders on three pounds. Within the tropics they are kept sufficiently warm in the day-time not to require incubation, but beyond one or more females sit constantly, and the male bird takes that duty himself after the sun has set. It is then that the short roar may be heard during darkness; and at other times different sounds are uttered, likened to the cooing of pigeons, the cry of a hoarse child, and the hissing of a goose no doubt expressive of different emotions; but that the roar is expressive of the feeling of anger may be inferred from the assertion that jackals and foxes (Canis Megalotis Caama?) have been found close to the nests of these birds, kicked to death. This fact is the more credible, as the last-mentioned animal is a dexterous purloiner of their eggs; and it may be here added, in proof of the organ of smelling not being quite so obtuse in the ostrich as is asserted, that Caffres and Hottentots, when they daily rob a nest for their own convenience, always withdraw the eggs by means of a stick, in order to prevent the female finding out the larceny by means of the scent which human hands would leave behind; for then they will not continue to lay, but forsake the abode altogether. This circumstance may account for the small number of eggs often found in their nests. Tristram states (Ibis, 2:74): Two Arabs began to dig with their hands, and presently brought up four fine fresh eggs from the depth of about a foot under the warm sand.
4. Locality. The ostrich roams over the whole of Africa from the Sahara to the Cape; but principally affects vast desert plains, over which its lofty stature gives it a great command of sight. It is still abundant in the Arabian peninsula, and extends into the waste and and regions that bound it on the north. It was predicted both by Isa_13:21 and by Jeremiah 1, 39 that ostriches should dwell at Babylon, than which there could scarcely have been devised a feature more strongly fitted to mark the silence and desolation, not merely of the city itself, but of the whole region in which it stood, and the utter contrast of this condition with that in which it sat the lady of kingdoms, and the center to which converged all the traffic of a plain that swarmed with towns and cities. The bird of the desert still strides over the Euphratean plains. Herbert says he saw it between Lar and Shiraz. Mr. Ainsworth also implies that it still exists in the and wastes of Mesopotamia and Assyria, though it has become rare. Dr. Kitto informs us that it inhabits the great Syrian desert, especially the plains extending from the Hauran towards Jebel Shammar and Nejed. Some are found in the Hauran, and a few are taken almost every year, even within two days' journey of Damascus (Phys. Hist. of Palestine, p. 407). Prophecy assigns it to Idumaea (Isa_34:13). Ostriches exist, not only in Africa, but in the region of Arabia, east and south of Palestine beyond the Euphrates; but it may be a question whether they extend so far to the eastward as Goa, although that limit is assigned them by late French ornithologists.
The two species appear promiscuously in Asia and Africa, but the troops or coveys of each are always separate. The gray is more common in the south, while the black, which grows largest in Caffraria, predominates to the north of the equator. One of the last mentioned, taken on board a French prize, and wounded in the capture, was brought to London, where it was able to peck its food from a cross-beam eleven feet from the ground. The enormous bird afterwards shown in Bullock's museum was said to be the same. The common-sized ostrich weighs about eighty pounds; whence it may be judged that the individual here mentioned may have been at least forty pounds heavier.
5. Scripture Notices, etc. The ostrich is mentioned in the Old Testament among unclean birds (Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15), less, perhaps, because of the voracity with which it swallows glass, metals, etc. (AElian, Anim. 14:7; Shaw, Trav. p. 389), than because it appeared to the Hebrews as a kind of hybrid, half bird and half beast (comp. Sommer, Bibl. Abhdl. 1:257), or because the ideas of desolation and terror were naturally associated with its home in the desert. Indeed, the Arabians and Ethiopians eat the flesh of the ostrich with delight (see Diod. Sic. 3:28; Strabo, 16:772), and in India, and even in Rome, it was considered a delicacy (AElian, Anim. 14:13; Lamprid. Vit. Heliogab. p. 27). But it is only when young that it could be palatable to a modern taste; and it is always dry and hard (see Aben-Ezra, on Exo_23:29; Galen, De Aliment. Facult. 3:20). African Arabs, says Mr. Tristram, eat its flesh, which is good and sweet. Ostrich's brains were among the dainties that were, placed on the supper-tables of the ancient Romans. The fat of the ostrich is sometimes used in medicine for the cure of palsy and rheumatism (Pococke, Trav. 1:209). It is mentioned as living in the desert in Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jeremiah 1:39; Lam_4:3; comp. Theophrast. Plant. 4:4, p. 322; Jerome on Isaiah 14. This is so notorious of the ostrich that the Arabian zoologists suppose that it never drinks. It is said to be hardened against its young (Lam_4:3). This is confirmed of the ostrich by travelers (comp. Shaw, Trav. p. 388). Yet the common statement that the ostrich deposits and leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds cannot be supported. Elian even speaks of the ostrich as peculiarly fond of its young (Anima. 14:7). As a further proof of the affection of the ostrich for its young (we quote from Shaw's Zoology, 11:426), it is related by Thunberg that he once rode past a place where a female was sitting on her nest, when the bird sprang up and pursued him, evidently with a view to prevent his noticing her eggs or young. A mournful cry or scream is attributed to it (Mic_1:8; Job_30:29; comp. Bochart, Hieroz. 2:811 sq.). Shaw testifies to the lugubrious voice of this bird: During the lonesome part of the night they often make a doleful and hideous noise, which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear resemblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies (2:349). Dr. Livingstone refers to the loudness and lion-like character of the sound: The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud [as the lion] . I have been careful to inquire the opinions of Europeans who have heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of a lion and that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was that they could not when the animal was at any distance. . . To this day I can distinguish between them with certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by day, and the lion by night (South Africa, p. 141). The name רְנָנַים (Job_39:13) is given in allusion to this cry, as is sufficiently clear from the context. The following is a close translation of the poetical description of this bird in the passage just cited (Job_39:13-18), which aptly delineates its chief characteristics
The wing of the ostrich [is] flaunted: [Is her] pinion perchance [like that of the] pious [stork, or [her] feather? [Nay], for she will leave to the earth her eggs, Even upon [the] dust will she warm them; While she has forgotten that a foot may crush it, Even the living [thing] of the field trample it. She has harshly taken her young for [those] not [be longing] to her. In vain her labor [of parturition, since as to hatching she is] without dread. For God has made her oblivious of wisdom Nor apportioned to her [a share] in Understanding. [Yet] whenever aloft she may lash [herself for flight] She will laugh at the horse and at his rider.
The waving of the wing is well illustrated by the description of Leo Africanus (Descr. Afr. 9:55) and of Elian (Anim. 2:27), while the fact that the plumage is dark (gray or black) on the back, shoulders, and wings, and elsewhere white, is a striking resemblance to the stork. The statement in the 14th verse, that the ostrich leaves her eggs in the sand carelessly, arises probably from the fact that a few eggs are often found at a short distance from the nest, supposed to be placed there as food for the young when hatched (comp. Leo Afric. ut sup.; Vaillant, Reis. nach. Africa, 2:210; Bochart, p. 863). As to the folly spoken of in Job_39:17, it is a general belief among the Arabs that the ostrich is a very stupid bird; indeed they have a proverb, Stupid as an ostrich; and Bochart (Hieroz. 2:865) has given us five points on which this bird is supposed to deserve its character. They may be briefly stated thus:
(1) Because it will swallow iron, stones, etc.;
(2) Because when it is hunted it thrusts its head into a bush, and imagines the hunter does not see it;
(3) Because it allows itself to be deceived and captured in the manner described by Strabo (16:772. ed. Kramer);
(4) Because it neglects its eggs;
(5) Because it has a small head and few brains. Such is the opinion the Arabs have expressed with regard to the ostrich; a bird, however, which by no means deserves such a character, as travelers have frequently testified.
So wary is the bird, says Mr. Tristram (Ibis, 2:73), and so open are the vast plains over which it roams, that no ambuscades or artifices can be employed, and the vulgar resource of dogged perseverance is the only mode of pursuit. Dr. Shaw (Travels, 2:345) relates as an .instance of want of sagacity in the ostrich, that he saw one swallow several leaden bullets, scorching hot from the mould. We may add that not unfrequently the stones and other substances which ostriches swallow prove fatal to them. In this one respect, perhaps, there is some foundation for the character of stupidity attributed to them (Pliny, 10:1; comp. Diod. Sic. 2:50). Mr. Tristram, however, remarks, The necessity for swallowing stones, etc., may be understood from the favorite food of the tame ostriches I have seen being the date-stone, the hardest of vegetable substances (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 239). The statement that when erect she scorneth the horse and his rider, may be referred both to the height and the swiftness of the bird. The ostrich is the largest of all known birds, and perhaps the swiftest of all cursorial animals. The capture of an ostrich is often made at the sacrifice of the lives of two horses (Ibis, 2:73). Its strength is enormous. The wings are useless for flight, but when the bird is pursued they are extended and act as sails before the wind. The ostrich's feathers so much prized are the long white plumes of the wings. The best come to us from Barbary and the west coast of Africa. The ostrich belongs to the family Struthionidae, order Cursorses.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
1. bath yaănâh, Lev_11:15, Deu_14:15, Job_30:29, Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:26, Jer_50:39, and Mic_1:8. In all these references AV [Note: Authorized Version.] has owl, but RV [Note: Revised Version.] ostrich. Lit. tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of Heb. is daughter of greed.
2. yĕçnîm, ostriches, Lam_4:3.
3. yĕnânîm, Job_39:13 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] peacocks, RV [Note: Revised Version.] ostrich. (In same verse chăsîdâh kindly is in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] mistranslated ostrich.)
The ostrich (Struthio camelus) still exists in the deserts to E. and S.E. of Syria; a live specimen was brought into Jerusalem a few years ago, and their eggs are from time to time offered for sale by the Bedouln.
The popular view of the ostrichs neglect of her eggs appears in Job_39:14-15, but the following is her real habit. The ostrich is polygamous, and a group of three or four hens, jealously guarded by a cock, lay some thirty or forty eggs in a common nest in the ground, covering them over with sand. During the day the heat of the sun is a sufficient incubator, but at night the birds take turns in keeping the eggs warm. A few scattered eggs, said to be used for food for the young chicks, are laid after the nest is closed, and these have given rise to the popular view. The feathers (Job_39:13), the swift pace (Job_39:18), and the mournful cry (Mic_1:8) of the ostrich are all referred to in Scripture, and in Job_30:28 its cry is associated with that other melancholy night-crythe wailing of the jackals.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
So translated for "owl" (Lev_11:16), bath haya'anah "daughter of greediness" or "daughter of wailing." Isa_34:13 translated "a dwelling for ostriches," not "a court for owls" (Isa_43:20, margin). Feminine to express the species. Some Arabs eat the flesh. It will swallow almost any substance, iron, stone, etc., to assist the triturating action of the gizzard. The date stone, the hardest of vegetable substances, is its favourite food. Its cry resembles the lion's, so that Hottentots mistake it. Dr. Livingstone could only distinguish them by the fact that the ostrich roars by day, and the lion roars by night. Rosenmuller makes the derivation "daughter of the desert." (Mic_1:8), Job_30:29 - "I am a companion to ostriches" (not "owls"), living among solitudes. In Lam_4:3, yeenim, "cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness." renanim; Job_39:13, "peacocks." Rather, "the ostrich hen," literally, "cries," referring to its dismal night cries, as in Job_30:29. Translated: "the wing of the ostrich hen vibrates joyously.
Is it like the quill and feathers of the pious bird (the stork)? (surely not.)" The quivering wing characterizes the ostrich in full course. Its white and black feathers in the wing and tail are like the stork's feathers; but, unlike that bird, the symbol of parental love, it deserts its young. If the "peacock"(which has a distinct name, tukiyim) had been meant, the tail, its chief beauty, not the wings, would have been mentioned. Ostriches are polygamous. The hens lay their eggs promiscuously in one nest, a mere hole scratched in the sand, and they cover them with sand a foot deep. The parent birds incubate by turn during the night, but leave them by day to the sun's heat in tropical countries. Hence, arose the notion of her lack of parental love: "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust." But in non-tropical countries the female incubates her eggs by day, the male takes his turn on the nest at night. There they watch the eggs so carefully that they will even kill jackals in their defense.
Moreover, she lays some of her eggs on the surface around the nest; these seem to be forsaken; "she forgeteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them." They are actually for the nutriment of the young birds. It is a shy bird. The only stupidity in the ostrich which warrants the Arab designation "the stupid bird" at all is its swallowing at times of substances which prove fatal to it, for instance, hot bullets, according to Dr. Shaw (Travels, ii. 345); also its never swerves from the course it once adopts, so that hunters often kill it by taking a shortcut, to which it only runs faster. Livingstone calculates its stride at 12 ft. on an average, and 30 strides in every 10 seconds, i.e. 26 miles an hour. "She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers," i.e. to man she seems (Scripture uses phenomenal language, not thereby asserting the scientific accuracy of it) as if she neglected her young; but she is guided by a sure instinct from God, as much as animals whose instincts seem (at first sight) to be more provident. At a slight noise she forsakes her eggs, as if hardened toward her young; but it is actually a mark of young sagacity, since her capture might be the only result of returning.
"Her labour (in producing eggs) is in vain, (yet she is) without fear," unlike other birds who, if one and another egg be removed, will go on laying until the full number is restored. "Because God hath deprived her of wisdom," etc.: the argument is, her very seeming lack of wisdom is not without the wise design of God, just as in the saint's trials, which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hidden a wise design. Her excellencies, notwithstanding her seeming deficiencies, are enumerated next; "she (proudly) lifteth up herself on high (Gesenius, 'she lasheth herself' up to the course by flapping her wings), she scorneth the horse." The largest and swiftest of cursorial animals. Its strength is immense; the wings are not used for flying, but are spread "quivering" (see above) as sails before the wind, and serve also as oars. The long white plumes in the wing and tail come to us from Barbary; the general plumage is black, the head and neck is bare. Their height is more than eight feet. Zoologically, it approaches the mammalian type. Its habitat is the desert here and there, from the Sahara to the Cape of South Africa, and in the Euphratean plains (Isa_13:21, margin).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Ostrich. A large bird, native of African and Arabia, nearly ten feet high, having a long neck and short wings. It seeks retired places, Job_30:29; Lam_4:13, and has a peculiar, mournful cry, that is sometimes mistaken by the Arabs, for that of the lion. Mic_1:8. In Job_39:13-18, will be found a description of the bird's habits. Ostriches are polygamous; the hens lay their eggs promiscuously in one nest, which is merely a hole scratched in the sand; the eggs are then covered over to the depth of about a foot, and are, in the case of those birds which are found within the tropics, generally left for the greater part of the day to the heat of the sun, the parent-birds taking their turns at incubation during the night.
The habit of the ostrich leaving its eggs to be matured by the sun's heat is usually appealed to in order to confirm the scriptural account, "she leaveth her eggs to the earth;" but this is probably the case only with the tropical birds. We believe that the true explanation of this passage is that some of the eggs are left exposed around the nest for the nourishment of the young birds.
It is a general belief, among the Arabs, that the ostrich is a very stupid bird; indeed, they have a proverb, "stupid as an ostrich." As is well known, the ostrich will swallow almost any substance, iron, stones, and even has been known to swallow , "several leaden bullets scorching hot from the mould." But, in many other respects, the ostrich is not as stupid as this would indicate, and is very hard to capture. It is the largest of all known birds, and perhaps, the swiftest of all cursorial animals. ? The feathers so much prized are the long white plumes of the wings. The best are brought from Barbary, and the west coast of Africa.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
יענח ; in Arabic neamah; in Greek στρουθοκαμηλος, the camel bird; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is called thar edsjammel, the camel bird, Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; Job_30:29; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jer_50:39; Lam_4:3; Mic_1:8; רננים , Job_39:13. The first name in the places above quoted is, by our own translators, generally rendered owls. Now it should be recollected, says the author of Scripture Illustrated, that the owl is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in several of these passages, the joneh is associated with deserts, dry, extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description, and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived. The Hebrew phrase בת היענה , means the daughter of vociferation, and is understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.
Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair, stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. The ostrich, says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal so remarkably large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are invariable. On the least noise, says Dr. Shaw, 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. Agreeably to this account the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed: some of them are sweet and good, others are addle and corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growth, according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken of the dam. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones no bigger than well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and moaning about like so many distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich may be said to be hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers; her labour, in hatching and attending them so far, being vain, without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterward. This want of affection is also recorded, Lam_4:3, the daughter of my people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;' that is, by apparently deserting their own, and receiving others in return. Natural affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, laugh at the horse and his rider. They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be insensible of fatigue.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
os?trich (יענה, ya‛ănāh; στρουθός, strouthós; Latin Struthio camelus): The largest bird now living. The Hebrew words ya‛ănāh, which means ?greediness,? and bath ha- ya‛ănāh, ?daughter of greediness,? are made to refer to the indiscriminate diet of the ostrich, to which bird they apply; and again to the owl, with no applicability. The owl at times has a struggle to swallow whole prey it has taken, but the mere fact that it is a night hunter forever shuts it from the class of greedy and promiscuous feeders. The bodies of owls are proverbially lean like eagles. Neither did the owl frequent several places where older versions of Jer and Isa place it; so the translations are now correctly rendered ?ostrich.? These birds came into the Bible because of their desert life, the companions they lived among there, and because of their night cries that were guttural, terrifying groans, like the roaring of lions. The birds were brought into many pictures of desolation, because people dreaded their fearful voices. They horned on the trackless deserts that were dreaded by travelers, and when they came feeding on the fringe of the wilderness, they fell into company with vulture, eagle, lion, jackal and adder, and joined their voices with the night hawks and owls. For these reasons no birds were more suitable for drawing strong comparisons from.
1. Physical Peculiarities:
They attained a height ranging from 6 to 8 ft., and weighed from 200 to 300 lbs. The head was small with large eyes having powerful vision, and protected by lashes. The neck was long, covered with down, and the windpipe showed, while large bites could be seen to slide down the gullet. The legs were bare, long, and the muscles like steel from the long distances covered in desert travel. The foot was much like the cloven hoof of a beast. The inner toe was 7 inches long, with a clawlike hoof, the outer, smaller with no claw. With its length and strength of leg and the weight of foot it could strike a blow that saved it from attack by beasts smaller than a leopard. The wings were small, the muscles soft and flabby. They would not bear the weight of the bird, but the habit of lifting and beating them proved that this assisted in attaining speed in running (compare Xen. Anab. i. 5, 2, 3). The body was covered with soft flexible feathers, the wings and tail growing long plumes, for which the bird has been pursued since the beginning of time. These exquisite feathers were first used to decorate the headdress and shields of desert chieftains, then as decorations for royalty, and later for hat and hair ornaments. The badge of the Prince of Wales is three white ostrich plumes. The females are smaller, the colors gray and white, the males a glossy black, the wing and tail plumes white. The ostrich has three physical peculiarities that stagger scientists. It has eyelashes, developed no doubt to protect the eyes from the dust and sand of desert life. On the wings are two plumeless shafts like large porcupine quills. These may be used in resisting attack. It also has a bladder like a mammal, that collects uric acid, the rarest organ ever developed in a feathered creature.
2. Eggs and Care of Young:
These birds homed on the deserts of Arabia and at the lower end of the great Salt Sea. Here the ostrich left her eggs on the earth and warmed them in the sand. That they were not hard baked was due to the fact that they were covered for protection during the day and brooded through the cooler nights. The eggs average 3 lbs. weight. They have been used for food in the haunts of the ostrich since the records of history began, and their stout shells for drinking-vessels. It is the custom of natives on finding a nest to take a long stick and draw out an egg. If incubation has advanced enough to spoil the eggs for use, the nest is carefully covered and left; if fresh, they are eaten, one egg being sufficient for a small family. No doubt these were the eggs to which Job referred as being tasteless without salt (Job_6:6). The number of eggs in the nest was due to the fact that the birds were polygamous, one male leading from 2 to 7 females, all of which deposited their eggs in a common nest. When several females wanted to use the nest at the same time, the first one to reach it deposited her egg in it, and the others on the sand close beside. This accounts for the careless habits of the ostrich as to her young. In this communal nest, containing from 2 to 3 dozen eggs, it is impossible for the mother bird to know which of the young is hers. So all of them united in laying the eggs and allowing the father to look after the nest and the young. The bird first appears among the abominations in Lev_11:16 the Revised Version (British and American) the King James Version ?owl?; Deu_14:16, the Revised Version (British and American) ?little owl,? the King James Version ?owl.? This must have referred to the toughness of grown specimens, since there was nothing offensive in the bird's diet to taint its flesh and the young tender ones were delicious meat. In his agony, Job felt so much an outcast that he cried: ?I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches? (Job_30:29).
Again he records that the Almighty discoursed to him about the ostrich in the following manner: ?The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; But are they the pinions and plumage of love?? etc. (Job_39:13-18).
3. Old Testament References:
The ostrich history previously given explains all this passage save the last two verses, the first of which is a reference to the fact that the Arabs thought that the ostrich was a stupid bird, because, when it had traveled to the point of exhaustion, it hid its head and thought its body safe, and because some of its eggs were found outside the nest. The second was due to a well-known fact that, given a straight course, the ostrich could outrun a horse. The birds could attain and keep up a speed of 60 miles an hour for the greater part of half a day and even longer, hence, it was possible to capture them only by a system of relay riders (Xenophon, op. cit.) When Isaiah predicted the fall of Babylon, he used these words: ?But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there? (Isa_13:21). Because this was to be the destruction of a great city, located on the Euphrates River and built by the fertility and prosperity of the country surrounding it, and the ruins those of homes, the bird indicated by every natural condition would be the owl. The wild goats clambering over the ruins would be natural companions and the sneaking wolves - but not the big bird of daytime travel, desert habitation, accustomed to constant pursuit for its plumage. Exactly the same argument applies to the next reference by the same writer (Isa_34:13). ?And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest? (Isa_34:14). ?The beasts of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen? (Isa_43:20). Here we find the ostrich in its natural location, surrounded by creatures that were its daily companions. The next reference also places the bird at home and in customary company: ?Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwelI there, and the ostriches (the King James Version ?owls?) shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation? (Jer_50:39). ?Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness? (Lam_4:3).
This reference is made to the supposed cruelty of the ostrich in not raising its young.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Fig. 283?Ostrich
The ostrich is frequently mentioned in the Bible in terms of great beauty and precision; which commentators, perhaps more conversant with the exploded misstatements of the ancients than with the true physiological history of the bird in question, have not been happy in explaining, sometimes referring it to wrong species, such as the peacock, or mistaking it for the stork, the eagle, or the bustard (Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; Job_30:29; Job_39:13; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jer_50:39; Lam_4:3; Mic_1:8). In several of these passages 'owls' has been used in our version for ostriches, which the original word there employed really means.
There are two varieties, if not two species, of the ostrich; one never attaining seven feet in height, and covered chiefly with gray and dingy feathers; the other sometimes growing to more than ten feet, and of a glossy black plumage; the males in both having the great feathers of the wings and tail white, but the females the tail only of that color. Their dimensions render them both the largest animals of the feathered creation now existing. They appear promiscuously in Asia and Africa, but the troops or coveys of each are always separate; the gray is more common in the south, while the black, which grows largest in Caffraria, predominates to the north of the equator. The common-sized ostrich weighs about eighty pounds.
Ostriches are gregarious?from families consisting of a male with one or several female birds, and perhaps a brood or two of young, up to troops of near a hundred. They keep aloof from the presence of water in the wild and arid desert, mixing without hesitation among herds of gnu, wild asses, quaggas, and other striped Equid?, and the larger species of Antilopid?. From the nature of their food, which consists of seeds and vegetables, although seldom or never in want of drink, it is evident that they must often approach more productive regions, which, by means of the great rapidity of motion they possess, is easily accomplished; and they are consequently known to be very destructive to cultivated fields. As the organ of taste is very obtuse in these birds, they swallow with little or no discrimination all kinds of substances, and among others stones; it is also probable that, like poultry, they devour lizards, snakes, and the young of birds that fall in their way. It is not yet finally decided whether the two species are polygamous, though concurrent testimony seems to leave no doubt of the fact: there is, however, no uncertainty respecting the nest, which is merely a circular basin scraped out of the soil, with a slight elevation at the border, and sufficiently large to contain a great number of eggs; for from twelve to about sixty have been found in them, exclusive of a certain number, always observed to be outlying, or placed beyond the raised border of the nest, and amounting apparently to nearly one-third of the whole. These are supposed to feed the young brood when first hatched, either in their fresh state, or in a corrupted form, when the substance in them has produced worms. These eggs are of different periods of laying, like those within, and the birds hatched form only a part of the contents of a nest, until the breeding season closes. The eggs are of different sizes, some attaining to seven inches in their longer diameter, and others less, having a dirty white shell, finely speckled with rust color; and their weight borders on three pounds. Within the tropics they are kept sufficiently warm in the daytime not to require incubation, but beyond these one or more females sit constantly, and the male bird takes that duty himself after the sun is set. It is then that the short roar maybe heard during darkness; and at other times different sounds are uttered, likened to the cooing of pigeons, the cry of a hoarse child, and the hissing of a goose; no doubt expressive of different emotions.
Although possessed of strength sufficient to carry with velocity two adult human beings, and although readily tamed, even when taken in a state of maturity, nay easily rendered familiar and docile, and although they are by no means the stupid creatures they have been believed, still their voracity, leading to the destruction of young poultry, and the impracticability of guiding their powers, will ever render them unsafe and unprofitable domestics. Though at first sight useless, we may be assured that Providence has not appointed their abode in the desert in vain; and they still continue to exist, not only in Africa, but in the region of Arabia, east and south of Palestine beyond the Euphrates; but it may be a question whether they extend so far to the eastward as Goa, although that limit is assigned them by late French ornithologists.
The flesh of a young ostrich is said to be not unpalatable; but its being declared unclean in the Mosaic legislation may be ascribed to a twofold cause. The first is sufficiently obvious from its indiscriminate voracity already mentioned, and the other may have been an intention to lay a restriction upon the Israelites in order to wean them from the love of a nomade life, which hunting in the desert would have fostered; for ostriches must be sought on the barren plains, where they are not accessible on foot, except by stratagem. When pursued, they cast stones and gravel behind them with great force; and though it requires long endurance and skill, their natural mode of fleeing in a circular form enables well-mounted Arabs to overtake and slay them.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Ostrich
(יִעֲנָה, yaanah', always with בִּת, daughter of the ostrich, i.e. the female ostrich. See also the cognate יָעֵן, yaen, Lam_4:3. In Job_39:13, the word נוֹצָה, notsah, feathers, is wrongly rendered ostrich; while רְנָנַים, female ostriches, is translated peacocks, in the A.V.; Sept. στρουθός, Deu_14:15, but in Isaiah and in Mic_1:8, Sept. σειρῆνες; see Schleusner, Lex . s.v.). In Arabic the bird is called nea-mah, also thareds jammel, i.e. camel-bird; like the Persian sutur morgh; comp. Greek στρουθοκάμηλος (Diod. Sic. 2:50), and Lat. Struthiocamelus, in Pliny.
1. Names.
(1.) It is now generally admitted that the word yaansh should be rendered ostrich; as the passages in which it occurs require us to understand some inhabitant of the remote desert, and seem thus to exclude the owl, the usual rendering in the English Version (Job_30:29; Job_39:13; Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13). SEE OWL.
The etymology of the word also accords better with the former rendering. The wordn יִעֲנָה, yaanah', like רְנָנַים, renanim', appears to refer to the habit of uttering loud-sounding cries; and the third name, bath-hayaanah, the daughter of vociferation, or loud moaning, is in conformity with the others, and an Oriental figurative mode of expressing the same faculty (which exists not, we think, in the females alone, but in the whole species); for the ostrich has an awful voice, which, when heard on the desert, is sometimes mistaken in the night, even by natives, for the sound of a beast. This, too, is the almost unanimous rendering of the old translators (Gesen. Thes. 2:609), while the reference of the word to the owl, supported by Oedmann (Samml. 3:35 sq.), rests on no 'early testimony. Bochart (2:830 sq.) would understand the male ostrich by תִּחְמָס, in Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15; but no ancient version supports this rendering. SEE NIGHT-HAWK.
Gesenius (Thes. s.v. יִעֲנָה) refers the word to the root יָעִן, which signifies to be greedy or voracious; and demurs to the explanation given by Michaelis (Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. p. 1127) and by Rosenmüller (Not. ad Hieroz. 2:829, and Schol. ad Lev_11:16), who trace the Hebrew word yaanah to one which 'in Arabic denotes hard and sterile land: bath-hayaanah accordingly would mean daughter of the desert. Without entering into the merits of these various explanations, it will be enough to mention that any one of them is well suited to the habits of the ostrich. This bird, as is well known, will swallow almost any substance, pieces of iron, large stones, etc.; this it does probably in order to assist the triturating action of the gizzard: so that the Oriental expression of daughter of voracity is eminently characteristic of the ostrich. With regard to the two other derivations of the Hebrew word, we may add that the cry of the ostrich is said sometimes to resemble that of the lion, so that the Hottentots of South Africa are deceived by it; and that its particular haunts are the parched and desolate tracts of sandy deserts.
(2.) Ya'en (יָעֵן) occurs only in the plural number יְעֵנַים, ye'enim (Sept. στρουθίον, Vulg. struthio), in Lam_4:3, where the context shows that the ostrich is intended: The daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. This is important, as showing that theabove word, which is merely the feminine form of this one, with the addition of bath, daughter, clearly points to the ostrich as its correct translation, even if all the old versions were not agreed upon the matter.
(3.) Ranan, רָנָן, in the plural form רְנָנָים, renanim; Sept. τερπόμενοι; Vulg. struthio), alone occurs in Job_39:13; where, however. it is clear from the whole passage (13-18) that ostriches are intended by the word. The A. V. renders rehanim by peacocks, a translation which has not found favor with commentators; as peacocks, for which there is a different Hebrew name (תֻּכַּיַּים), were probably not known to the people of Arabia or Syria before the time of Solomon. SEE PEACOCK.
The Hebrew renanins appears to be derived from the root רָנִן, randan, to wail, or to utter a stridulous sound, in allusion to this bird's nocturnal cries. Gesenius compares the Arabic zimar, a female ostrich, from the root zamar, to sing.
2. Description. The head of the ostrich is small, and not composed of strong bones; the bill, in form somewhat like that of a duck, is flat, with a nail at the apex, and broad at the gape; the eyes, hazel-colored, have a clear and distinct vision of objects to a great distance, although when seen obliquely they have an opalescent appearance; the auditory apparatus is large and open, notwithstanding that in the pairing season ostriches are said to be very deaf; the neck, long and slender, is, together with the head, but scantiy clothed with whitish shining hairs, and in the pairing season becomes for a time pink or rosy red; towards the base it assumes the general color of the plumage, which, with the quill and tail plumes, is entirely composed of loose downy-webbed feathers, only differing in size and color; the wings, each from three to four feet long, exclusive of feathers, are entirely naked on the inner side, and are supplied towards the end of the pinion bone on each side with two sharp-pointed quills resembling those of a porcupine, and no doubt serving for defense; the thighs, nearly bare of plumage, and of a deep flesh-color, are as full and muscular as those of a strong man, and the tarsi or legs, of corresponding length with the proportions of the neck, are covered with broad horny scales, and terminate in two toes; the inner, being the longest, is armed with a broad, strong claw; and that on the outside, only half the length of the other, is without any. The great feathers, so much prized in commerce, are twenty in each wing, those of the tail being nearly always useless, broken, and worn. The cloven feet, long neck, and vaulted back of these birds are in themselves quite sufficient to suggest to the imagination an animal of the camel kind: but these external appearances are not the only points of resemblance; the stomach is so formed as to appear possessed of a third ventricle, and there are other structural particulars, such as a sternum not keel-shaped, as in birds, but in the form of a round buckler, to protect the chest, which, with the fact that they are without the muscular conformation to render them capable of flying, altogether approximate these birds to quadrupeds, and particularly to the order of Ruminantia.
3. Habits. Ostriches are gregarious from families consisting of a male with one or several female birds, and perhaps a brood or two of young, up to troops of near a hundred. They keep aloof from: the presence of water in the wild and desert, mixing without hesitation among herds of gnu, wild asses, quaggas, and other striped Equidae, and the larger species of Antilopidte. From. the nature of their food, which consists of seeds and vegetables, although seldom or never in want of drink, it is evident that they must often approach more productive regions, which, by means of the great rapidity of motion they possess, is easily accomplished; and they are consequently known to be very destructive to cultivated fields. As the organ of taste is very obtuse in these birds, they swallow with little or no discrimination all kinds of substances, and among these stones; it is also probable that, like poultry, they devour lizards, snakes, and the young of birds that fail in their way. One has even been known to snap a traveler's sketch-book from his hand, attracted to it by the sight of the white paper. It is not yet finally decided whether the two species are polygamous, though concurrent testimony seems to leave no doubt of the fact: there is, however, no uncertainty respecting the nest, which is merely a circular basin scraped out of the soil, with a slight elevation at the border, and sufficiently large to contain a great number of eggs; from twelve to about sixty have been found in them, exclusive of a certain number always observed to be outlying, or placed beyond the raised border of the nest, and amounting apparently to nearly one third of the whole. These are supposed to feed the young brood when first hatched, either in their fresh state, or in a corrupted form, when the substance in them has produced worms. These eggs are of different periods of laying, like those within, and the birds hatched form only a part of the contents of a nest, until the breeding season closes. The eggs are of different sizes, some attaining to seven inches in their longer diameter, and others less, having a dirty white shell, finely speckled with rust color; their weight borders on three pounds. Within the tropics they are kept sufficiently warm in the day-time not to require incubation, but beyond one or more females sit constantly, and the male bird takes that duty himself after the sun has set. It is then that the short roar may be heard during darkness; and at other times different sounds are uttered, likened to the cooing of pigeons, the cry of a hoarse child, and the hissing of a goose no doubt expressive of different emotions; but that the roar is expressive of the feeling of anger may be inferred from the assertion that jackals and foxes (Canis Megalotis Caama?) have been found close to the nests of these birds, kicked to death. This fact is the more credible, as the last-mentioned animal is a dexterous purloiner of their eggs; and it may be here added, in proof of the organ of smelling not being quite so obtuse in the ostrich as is asserted, that Caffres and Hottentots, when they daily rob a nest for their own convenience, always withdraw the eggs by means of a stick, in order to prevent the female finding out the larceny by means of the scent which human hands would leave behind; for then they will not continue to lay, but forsake the abode altogether. This circumstance may account for the small number of eggs often found in their nests. Tristram states (Ibis, 2:74): Two Arabs began to dig with their hands, and presently brought up four fine fresh eggs from the depth of about a foot under the warm sand.
4. Locality. The ostrich roams over the whole of Africa from the Sahara to the Cape; but principally affects vast desert plains, over which its lofty stature gives it a great command of sight. It is still abundant in the Arabian peninsula, and extends into the waste and and regions that bound it on the north. It was predicted both by Isa_13:21 and by Jeremiah 1, 39 that ostriches should dwell at Babylon, than which there could scarcely have been devised a feature more strongly fitted to mark the silence and desolation, not merely of the city itself, but of the whole region in which it stood, and the utter contrast of this condition with that in which it sat the lady of kingdoms, and the center to which converged all the traffic of a plain that swarmed with towns and cities. The bird of the desert still strides over the Euphratean plains. Herbert says he saw it between Lar and Shiraz. Mr. Ainsworth also implies that it still exists in the and wastes of Mesopotamia and Assyria, though it has become rare. Dr. Kitto informs us that it inhabits the great Syrian desert, especially the plains extending from the Hauran towards Jebel Shammar and Nejed. Some are found in the Hauran, and a few are taken almost every year, even within two days' journey of Damascus (Phys. Hist. of Palestine, p. 407). Prophecy assigns it to Idumaea (Isa_34:13). Ostriches exist, not only in Africa, but in the region of Arabia, east and south of Palestine beyond the Euphrates; but it may be a question whether they extend so far to the eastward as Goa, although that limit is assigned them by late French ornithologists.
The two species appear promiscuously in Asia and Africa, but the troops or coveys of each are always separate. The gray is more common in the south, while the black, which grows largest in Caffraria, predominates to the north of the equator. One of the last mentioned, taken on board a French prize, and wounded in the capture, was brought to London, where it was able to peck its food from a cross-beam eleven feet from the ground. The enormous bird afterwards shown in Bullock's museum was said to be the same. The common-sized ostrich weighs about eighty pounds; whence it may be judged that the individual here mentioned may have been at least forty pounds heavier.
5. Scripture Notices, etc. The ostrich is mentioned in the Old Testament among unclean birds (Lev_11:16; Deu_14:15), less, perhaps, because of the voracity with which it swallows glass, metals, etc. (AElian, Anim. 14:7; Shaw, Trav. p. 389), than because it appeared to the Hebrews as a kind of hybrid, half bird and half beast (comp. Sommer, Bibl. Abhdl. 1:257), or because the ideas of desolation and terror were naturally associated with its home in the desert. Indeed, the Arabians and Ethiopians eat the flesh of the ostrich with delight (see Diod. Sic. 3:28; Strabo, 16:772), and in India, and even in Rome, it was considered a delicacy (AElian, Anim. 14:13; Lamprid. Vit. Heliogab. p. 27). But it is only when young that it could be palatable to a modern taste; and it is always dry and hard (see Aben-Ezra, on Exo_23:29; Galen, De Aliment. Facult. 3:20). African Arabs, says Mr. Tristram, eat its flesh, which is good and sweet. Ostrich's brains were among the dainties that were, placed on the supper-tables of the ancient Romans. The fat of the ostrich is sometimes used in medicine for the cure of palsy and rheumatism (Pococke, Trav. 1:209). It is mentioned as living in the desert in Isa_13:21; Isa_34:13; Isa_43:20; Jeremiah 1:39; Lam_4:3; comp. Theophrast. Plant. 4:4, p. 322; Jerome on Isaiah 14. This is so notorious of the ostrich that the Arabian zoologists suppose that it never drinks. It is said to be hardened against its young (Lam_4:3). This is confirmed of the ostrich by travelers (comp. Shaw, Trav. p. 388). Yet the common statement that the ostrich deposits and leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds cannot be supported. Elian even speaks of the ostrich as peculiarly fond of its young (Anima. 14:7). As a further proof of the affection of the ostrich for its young (we quote from Shaw's Zoology, 11:426), it is related by Thunberg that he once rode past a place where a female was sitting on her nest, when the bird sprang up and pursued him, evidently with a view to prevent his noticing her eggs or young. A mournful cry or scream is attributed to it (Mic_1:8; Job_30:29; comp. Bochart, Hieroz. 2:811 sq.). Shaw testifies to the lugubrious voice of this bird: During the lonesome part of the night they often make a doleful and hideous noise, which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear resemblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies (2:349). Dr. Livingstone refers to the loudness and lion-like character of the sound: The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud [as the lion] . I have been careful to inquire the opinions of Europeans who have heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of a lion and that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was that they could not when the animal was at any distance. . . To this day I can distinguish between them with certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by day, and the lion by night (South Africa, p. 141). The name רְנָנַים (Job_39:13) is given in allusion to this cry, as is sufficiently clear from the context. The following is a close translation of the poetical description of this bird in the passage just cited (Job_39:13-18), which aptly delineates its chief characteristics
The wing of the ostrich [is] flaunted: [Is her] pinion perchance [like that of the] pious [stork, or [her] feather? [Nay], for she will leave to the earth her eggs, Even upon [the] dust will she warm them; While she has forgotten that a foot may crush it, Even the living [thing] of the field trample it. She has harshly taken her young for [those] not [be longing] to her. In vain her labor [of parturition, since as to hatching she is] without dread. For God has made her oblivious of wisdom Nor apportioned to her [a share] in Understanding. [Yet] whenever aloft she may lash [herself for flight] She will laugh at the horse and at his rider.
The waving of the wing is well illustrated by the description of Leo Africanus (Descr. Afr. 9:55) and of Elian (Anim. 2:27), while the fact that the plumage is dark (gray or black) on the back, shoulders, and wings, and elsewhere white, is a striking resemblance to the stork. The statement in the 14th verse, that the ostrich leaves her eggs in the sand carelessly, arises probably from the fact that a few eggs are often found at a short distance from the nest, supposed to be placed there as food for the young when hatched (comp. Leo Afric. ut sup.; Vaillant, Reis. nach. Africa, 2:210; Bochart, p. 863). As to the folly spoken of in Job_39:17, it is a general belief among the Arabs that the ostrich is a very stupid bird; indeed they have a proverb, Stupid as an ostrich; and Bochart (Hieroz. 2:865) has given us five points on which this bird is supposed to deserve its character. They may be briefly stated thus:
(1) Because it will swallow iron, stones, etc.;
(2) Because when it is hunted it thrusts its head into a bush, and imagines the hunter does not see it;
(3) Because it allows itself to be deceived and captured in the manner described by Strabo (16:772. ed. Kramer);
(4) Because it neglects its eggs;
(5) Because it has a small head and few brains. Such is the opinion the Arabs have expressed with regard to the ostrich; a bird, however, which by no means deserves such a character, as travelers have frequently testified.
So wary is the bird, says Mr. Tristram (Ibis, 2:73), and so open are the vast plains over which it roams, that no ambuscades or artifices can be employed, and the vulgar resource of dogged perseverance is the only mode of pursuit. Dr. Shaw (Travels, 2:345) relates as an .instance of want of sagacity in the ostrich, that he saw one swallow several leaden bullets, scorching hot from the mould. We may add that not unfrequently the stones and other substances which ostriches swallow prove fatal to them. In this one respect, perhaps, there is some foundation for the character of stupidity attributed to them (Pliny, 10:1; comp. Diod. Sic. 2:50). Mr. Tristram, however, remarks, The necessity for swallowing stones, etc., may be understood from the favorite food of the tame ostriches I have seen being the date-stone, the hardest of vegetable substances (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 239). The statement that when erect she scorneth the horse and his rider, may be referred both to the height and the swiftness of the bird. The ostrich is the largest of all known birds, and perhaps the swiftest of all cursorial animals. The capture of an ostrich is often made at the sacrifice of the lives of two horses (Ibis, 2:73). Its strength is enormous. The wings are useless for flight, but when the bird is pursued they are extended and act as sails before the wind. The ostrich's feathers so much prized are the long white plumes of the wings. The best come to us from Barbary and the west coast of Africa. The ostrich belongs to the family Struthionidae, order Cursorses.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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