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Friday, July 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Green's Literal Translation

Job 39:17

because God has made her forget wisdom; and He has not given to her a share in understanding.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

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

Dictionaries:

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

Parallel Translations

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

Contextual Overview

13 The wing of the ostriches flap joyously, though not like the stork's pinions for flight. 14 For she leaves her eggs to the earth, and lets them warm on the dust; 15 and forgets that a foot may crush it, or the beast of the field may trample it; 16 she treats her young roughly, as if they are not hers; for her labor is vanity without fear; 17 because God has made her forget wisdom; and He has not given to her a share in understanding. 18 At the time she lifts up on high, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

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

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

Cross-References

Genesis 39:2
And Jehovah was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of the Egyptian, his master.
Genesis 39:4
And Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. And he appointed him over his house, and he gave all he owned into his hand.
Genesis 39:9
No one in this house is greater than I, and he has not withheld anything from me except you, because you are his wife. And how should I do this great evil and sin against God?
Genesis 39:13
And it happened, when she saw that he had left his robe in her hand, and had fled outside,
Genesis 39:14
she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, Behold! He has brought to us a Hebrew man in to sport with us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
Exodus 20:16
You shall not testify a witness of falsehood against your neighbor.
Exodus 23:1
You shall not utter a false report; You shall not put your hand with the wicked, to become a violent witness.
1 Kings 18:17
And it happened when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Are you this one, this one destroying Israel?
Psalms 37:14
The wicked have drawn out the sword and they have trodden their bow, to cause the poor and needy to fall, to kill those who walk uprightly.
Psalms 55:3
from the voice of the enemy, from the oppression of the wicked; for they shake trouble over me, and in anger they hate me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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

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

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

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

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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

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

____________ 'Stat lumine clauso

Ridendum revoluta caput: creditque latere

Quad non ipsa videt.'


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


 
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