The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.
Parallel translations
- WEB “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; but are they the feathers and plumage of love?
- KJV Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
- NKJV “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s?
- NASB ¶“The wings of the ostrich flap joyously, With the pinion and feathers of love,
- NLT “The ostrich flaps her wings grandly, but they are no match for the feathers of the stork.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The ostrich flaps its wings proudly, yet they are not like the loving plumage of the stork. God made even this odd, ungainly bird.
Overview
God introduces the ostrich, whose flashy wings lack the nurturing care seen in other birds. The verse, which has some difficulty in translation, begins a portrait of a creature that seems foolish yet is God's own design. It prepares to show that God's wisdom embraces even what appears senseless to people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 8:7Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- Zech 5:9Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
- Ps 104:17where the birds build their nests; the stork makes her home in the cypresses.
- Job 30:29I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
- Lev 11:19the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
- 2 Chr 9:21For the king had the ships of Tarshish that went with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
- 1 Kgs 10:22For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 39:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.