Job 39:17
in Job 39For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, Neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
KJV
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
⋯
This verse in Job 39
Commentary
10 notes on this verseGod hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He given her understanding. 26. Although to deprive is one thing, and not to give is another, yet His first expression 'deprived,' He repealed by subjoining, 'hath not given.' As if He were saying, My expression 'deprived' means not that He has unjustly taken away wisdom, but that He has justly not given it. Whence the Lord is described as having hardened the heart of Pharaoh, not because He Himself inflicted hardness, but because, according as his deserts demanded, He softened it not by any sensibility of heaven-infused fear.
This site's exposition
The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully
on Job 39:13-18
Where the King James has peacocks, the Hebrew has the ostrich. “God has deprived her of wisdom”, so her want of sense is His appointment. Yet she “laughs at the horse and its rider” with a speed no wisdom could buy, so her lack and gift come from one hand.
This site's exposition
God has deprived her of wisdom
The Arabs say foolish as an ostrich, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report. They set her lack of wisdom beside the understanding God gives at Job 35:11. Gregory reads the second line as explaining the first: God has justly withheld wisdom from her.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
She does this if not because of fear, because of a defect of natural instinct which other animals have for this care, and so he says, "For God has deprived her," the female ostrich, "of wisdom," to nourish and govern her young in an orderly …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He given her understanding. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 41. For strict is the enquiry of secret retribution; and because it knowingly lost its humility, it also lost, unwittingly, the understanding of the truth. But the wounds, which it inflicted on the faithful at the coming of the Redeemer, are much less than those with which it still aims to smite the Church, by the coming of Antichrist. For it is preparing itself for that time, in order to oppress the life of the faithful with accumulated strength.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,....
Thirdly, So careless are too many ministers of their people, with whom they should reside; but they leave them in the earth, and forget how busy Satan is to sow tares while men sleep. They overlook those whom they should oversee, and are really hardened against them.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
wisdom--such as God gives to other animals, and to man (Job 35:11). The Arab proverb is, "foolish as an ostrich." Yet her very seeming want of wisdom is not without wise design of God, though man cannot see it; just as in the trials of the godly, which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hid a wise design.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
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.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| הִשָּׁ֣הּ | hishah | he has made forget it | H5382 → | |
| אֱל֣וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | God | H433 → | 57 times |
| חָכְמָ֑ה | chokhmah | wisdom | H2451 → | 153 times |
| וְלֹא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| חָ֥לַק | chalak | he gave a share | H2505 → | 65 times |
| לָ֝֗הּ | lah | to it | ||
| בַּבִּינָֽה׃ | babinah | in <the> understanding | H998 → | 38 times |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
הִשָּׁ֣הּhe has made forget it
hishahH5382 →
אֱל֣וֹהַּGod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
חָכְמָ֑הwisdom
chokhmahH2451 →153 times
וְלֹא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
חָ֥לַקhe gave a share
chalakH2505 →65 times
לָ֝֗הּto it
lah
בַּבִּינָֽה׃in <the> understanding
babinahH998 →38 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Chronicles 32:31And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 8:2
Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your…
- Proverbs 17:3
A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.
- John 15:5
I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
- 2 Chronicles 32:24
In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the LORD, who spoke to him and gave him a sign.
- Deuteronomy 8:2
Through
Deuteronomy 2:30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as…
it leads to
- Numbers 21:23
But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. Instead, he gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.
- Exodus 4:21
The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that…
- Numbers 21:23
Through
Job 35:11who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
it leads to
- Psalms 94:12
Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law,
- Psalms 94:12
Through
Isaiah 57:17I was enraged by his sinful greed, so I struck him and hid My face in anger; yet he kept turning back to the desires of his heart.
it leads to
- Isaiah 56:11
Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:
- Isaiah 56:11
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.