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OSTRICH
1. bath ya‘ãnâh , 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. yĕ‘çnîm, ‘ostriches,’ Lam_4:3.
3. yĕânîm, Job_39:13 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘peacocks,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘ostrich.’ (In same verse chãs îdâh ‘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 ostrich’s 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-cry—the ‘wailing’ of the jackals.
E. W. G. Masterman.