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Friday, September 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Read the Bible

JPS Old Testament

Job 30:29

I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ostriches;   Owl;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Birds;   Dragon, the;   Ostrich, the;   Reptiles;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Dragon;   Ostrich;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Dragon;   Owl;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Brother;   Ostrich;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Affliction;   Birds;   Jackal;   Job, the Book of;   Wisdom and Wise Men;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Dragon;   Ostrich;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Brother;   Ostrich;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dragon;   Ostrich;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Dragon;   Ostrich,;   Owl;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Brother;   Dragon;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Ostrich;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Brother;   Dragon;   Jackal;   Ostrich;   Whale;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Brother;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ostrich;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I have become a brother to jackalsand a companion of ostriches.
Hebrew Names Version
I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
King James Version
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
English Standard Version
I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches.
New Century Version
I have become a brother to wild dogs and a friend to ostriches.
New English Translation
I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches.
Amplified Bible
"I am a brother to [howling] jackals, And a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].
New American Standard Bible
"I have become a brother to jackals, And a companion of ostriches.
World English Bible
I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
Geneva Bible (1587)
I am a brother to the dragons, & a companion to the ostriches.
Legacy Standard Bible
I have become a brother to jackalsAnd a companion of ostriches.
Berean Standard Bible
I have become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
Contemporary English Version
making mournful sounds like jackals and owls.
Complete Jewish Bible
I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches.
Darby Translation
I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
Easy-to-Read Version
making sad sounds like the wild dogs, like the ostriches in the desert.
George Lamsa Translation
I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
Good News Translation
My voice is as sad and lonely as the cries of a jackal or an ostrich.
Lexham English Bible
I am a companion for the jackals and a companion for ostriches.
Literal Translation
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But now. I am a copanyon of dragons, & a felowe of Esiriches.
American Standard Version
I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
Bible in Basic English
I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
King James Version (1611)
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owles.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But nowe I am a brother of dragons, and a felowe of Estriches.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
English Revised Version
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y was the brother of dragouns, and the felow of ostrigis.
Update Bible Version
I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
Webster's Bible Translation
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
New King James Version
I am a brother of jackals, And a companion of ostriches.
New Living Translation
Instead, I am considered a brother to jackals and a companion to owls.
New Life Bible
I have become a brother to wild dogs, and a friend of ostriches.
New Revised Standard
I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A brother, became I to the brutes that howl, and a companion to the birds that screech:
Douay-Rheims Bible
I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
Revised Standard Version
I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
Young's Literal Translation
A brother I have been to dragons, And a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I have become a brother to jackals And a companion of ostriches.

Contextual Overview

15 Terrors are turned upon me, 16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me. 17 In the night my bones are pierced, and fall from me, and my sinews take no rest. 18 By the great force [of my disease] is my garment disfigured; it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. 19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me; I stand up, and Thou lookest at me. 21 Thou art turned to be cruel to me; with the might of Thy hand Thou hatest me. 22 Thou liftest me up to the wind, Thou causest me to ride upon it; and Thou dissolvest my substance. 23 For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. 24 Surely none shall put forth his hand to a ruinous heap, neither because of these things shall help come in one's calamity,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a brother: Job 17:14, Psalms 102:6, Isaiah 13:21, Isaiah 13:22, Isaiah 38:14, Micah 1:8, Malachi 1:3

owls: or, ostriches, Benoth yaanah, in Arabic, bintu naamatin, not owls, but ostriches, so called from their doleful and hideous noises. "I have often," says Dr. Shaw, "heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 14:15 - General Job 13:28 - And he Job 39:13 - wings and feathers unto the Proverbs 18:9 - is brother Isaiah 59:11 - mourn

Cross-References

Genesis 30:5
And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.
Genesis 30:8
And Rachel said: 'With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.' And she called his name Naphtali.
Genesis 30:9
When Leah saw that she had left off bearing, she took Zilpah her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob to wife.
Genesis 30:10
And Zilpah Leah's handmaid bore Jacob a son.
Genesis 30:22
And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
Genesis 30:25
And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban: 'Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
Genesis 30:38
And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink.
Genesis 30:40
And Jacob separated the lambs--he also set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark in the flock of Laban--and put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Laban's flock.
Genesis 31:6
And ye know that with all my power I have served your father.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. Or ostriches, as the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions; either he was obliged to dwell with such persons as were comparable to these creatures for their devouring words, hissing noise, and venomous speeches, or for want of compassion, and for their cruelty, as David is said to be among lions, Psalms 57:4; or also, he was like unto them, being solitary and alone, all his friends and acquaintance standing at a distance from him, as these creatures love lonesome and desolate places; or because of the wailing and howling noise they make, to which his mournful notes bore some resemblance,

Psalms 57:4- :; or because, when these creatures cry and howl, and make a noise, no mercy is shown to them, none pities or regards them; and so it was with him; though he stood and cried in ever so public a manner, none had any compassion on him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am a brother to dragons - That is, my loud complaints and cries resemble the doleful screams of wild animals, or of the most frightful monsters. The word “brother” is often used in this sense, to denote similarity in any respect. The word “dragons” here (תנין tannı̂yn), denotes properly a sea-monster, a great fish, a crocodile; or the fancied animal with wings called a dragon; see the notes at Isaiah 13:22. Gesenius, Umbreit, and Noyes, render this word here jackals - an animal between a dog and a fox, or a wolf and a fox; an animal that abounds in deserts and solitudes, and that makes a doleful cry in the night. So the Syriac renders it an animal resembling a dog; a wild dog. Castell. This idea agrees with the scope of the passage better than the common reference to a sea-monster or a crocodile. “The Deeb, or Jackal,” says Shaw, “is of a darker color than the fox, and about the same bigness. It yelps every night about the gardens and villages, feeding upon roots, fruit, and carrion.” Travels, p. 247, Ed. Oxford, 1738. That some wild animal, distinguished for a mournful noise, or howl, is meant, is evident; and the passage better agrees with the description of a jackal than the hissing of a serpent or the noise of the crocodile. Bochart supposes that the allusion is to dragons, because they erect their heads, and their jaws are drawn open, and they seem to be complaining against God on account of their humble and miserable condition. Taylor (Concord.) supposes it means jackals or thoes, and refers to the following places where the word may be so used; Psalms 44:19; Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 34:13; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 43:20; Jeremiah 11:11; Jeremiah 10:22; Jeremiah 49:33; Jeremiah 51:37; Lamentations 4:3; Micah 1:8; Malachi 1:3.

And a companion to owls - Margin, ostriches. The word companion here is used in a sense similar to brother in the other member of the parallelism, to denote resemblance. The Hebrew, here rendered owls, is, literally, daughters of answering, or clamor - יענה בנות benôth ya‛ănâh. The name is given on account of the plaintive and mournful cry which is made. Bochart. Gesenius supposes, however, that it is on account of its greediness and gluttony. The name “daughters of the ostrich.” denotes properly the female ostrich. The phrase is, however, put for the ostrich of both sexes in many places; see Gesenius on the word יענה ya‛ănâh; compare the notes at Isaiah 13:21. For a full examination of the meaning of the phrase, see Bochart, Hieroz. P. ii. L. 2. cap. xiv. pp. 218-231; see also Job 39:13-17. There can be little doubt that the ostrich is here intended, and Job means to say that his mourning resembled the doleful noise made by the ostrich in the lonely desert. Shaw, in his Travels, says that during the night “they (the ostriches) make very doleful and hideous noises; which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear a nearer resemblance to the hoarser voice of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 30:29. I am a brother to dragons — By my mournful and continual cry I resemble תנים tannim, the jackals or hyenas.

And a companion to owls. — בנות יענה benoth yaanah, to the daughters of howling: generally understood to be the ostrich; for both the jackal and the female ostrich are remarkable for their mournful cry, and for their attachment to desolate places.-Dodd.


 
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